Character Development
Nov. 30th, 2009 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
norcumiIt astounds me how much Kharisa's been... changing lately. It's an odd and subtle thing that I don't think other players would see or care about, and it is odd to me that someone who I've barely written but play constantly is developing in a true, literal fashion.
Let's take a look, shall we?
First off, Kharisa started as a concept of the fairly typical emo death knight – o woe is me, I have been slain and raised up to fight those I fought with etc. etc. A former priestess, and that was a realization that took time, effort, and a deliberate attempt to discover. I literally spent days wandering around with the random thought of “so was my DK a this or a that in life? Why or why not?” She was quiet in the way I think of “a toon,” to use the pejorative term that's so prevalent through the game. This is a persona which I use to play Warcraft, with little in the way of individual wants or desires in the sense of role playing. She skins and herbs because those are good skills for the secondary benefits (self healing and increased crits), not to mention makin' money.
Then Blizzard went and had its anniversary (Jeebus, it's been a year??!?) - or something like that, I'm honestly not sure. No, wait, I went and checked the Armory, and yes, that was it. Kharisa got a Baby Blizzard Bear in the mail. And like all good obsessed folks, I had her running around with it a lot.
Not so much my other characters, just her. And then Christmas rolled around, and hey presto, more pets. And that was when she started to display some personality.
She wanted vanity pets. Living things. Like her herbalism, this was a connection to life, the connection that she'd lost and become so cold without (thus, the lack of personality and quirks).
Uh oh.
It was little things like that. A rabid interest in herbalism. Buying vanity pet after vanity pet, and going through all the little quest chains to get so many of the silly things. My gods, the way she'd get a sprite darter, and then never summon it, because she's its Mommy, and would never want to put it in danger. Avoiding the Plaguelands even as she was grinding up the herbalism to get into Outlands usefully, for the good of the guild, of course (guild, alts, same difference).
And then Northrend. Oh, my, Northrend. Home of the Lich King, where his will extends everywhere, where almost literally everything you encounter has had his finger touch upon it.
Kharisa, as a death knight, rather understandably hates him with a passion that both undying and beyond fierce. And as she ran into more and more of his schemes and manipulations, more and more evidence that nothing happens in Northrend without Arthas' influence, she became more and more determined to Take. Him. Down. This made questing easier, with one singular foe behind everything and providing motivation and direction.
And then 80. Huh. The peak of potential. I'd done the Argent Crusade quest earlier, at like 77 or something, and she was interested, so we were off to fight for the tournament!
And bored out of our minds. I'd putz around with those dailies, looking to represent Darnassus, but... meh. It didn't fit well. So before too long, we went back to other things. Exploring the world – and that was fun. Yay, achievements! And then working through the quests in several zones, in particular Zul'Drak (she liked Zul'Drak – something about how she was actively helping those folks and the spirit kitty who's name I forget). And then the.... wonderful wonderful grind with the Cenarion Expedition, and getting their war hippogryph.
And only when she had done those things did we both turn around and face the tournament, and she's been going to town on that stuff lately. Just today we knocked Exodar out, and now all that's left is getting to represent the Gnomes. Four out of five factions, and she's going to be champion of them all. That's not me talking there, that's her.
It took me a bit to understand all of this. She didn't feel comfortable with the tournament at first, because she still felt unworthy to represent Darnassus. World exploration is a nice achievement and all, and the tabard and title are nice too, but it was for the spectacle, the renown that she was after. To do something, and to be known – to have her name linked to something other than a dead priestess and/or a death knight. There was a similar drive with the hippogryph – she wanted to get in touch with that part of her culture, the part of kaldorei that is intimately tied to their flying mounts. Somehow, by proving herself to the druids (interestingly, the half of the culture that's somewhat opposed to the priesthood, or at least... outside of the priests' domain), this made it ok to go back to the tournament and start to actively participate in her culture.
It helps/helped that part of that is ALLL about taking down Arthas.
It's funny how all that ties together. So ok, she was there, and got to represent Darnassus, but that wasn't good enough. She wanted to be an exalted champion. Ok, so it's easy enough to get Writs from the dailies to help purchase reputation increases, and then the holidays hit, and those dailies helped with overall alliance reputation, so all was nifty keen.
Until the last day (approximately?) of the Thanksgiving holiday. After she did all the rep turn ins. And was about 100 points short of exalted. Holy SHITE I haven't had a character step up into the driver's seat that hard since my table top days. I was running around, looking for a quest to do, any quest, but the low level bitty stuff would net me, what, a dozen points at a time hells no need this NOW and – OOO! Cloth turn in! I betcha she can turn in yes, yes we can do wool or rune cloth or – HOLY SHIT I'M CARRYING 60 WOOL ON ME AS IS TURN IN THANK YOU GODS - !
Exalted. Ding.
It's funny. I swear my hands were shaking at least a little bit as I turned ON the title “of Darnassus,” and it's really funny that as pretentious as I tend to think almost all the titles are, that one she is leaving on.
It was... coming home, for her, in a strange way. She'd regained something important, and somehow fundamental with that. And it's funny how even more ties together; she then promptly went out and bought all the saber mounts that she didn't have*, including the cheaper Argent Tournament mount. Now, I did that because there's more than one achievement there, but she did it because she wants to open a mount stable somewhere.
Life. She is motivated by life, and her need for a connection to it, and her past with Darnassus. And she's changing more and more rapidly lately to do that, and her coming out of her shell is more than a little startling. I like it; I always like it when a character manifests personality and quirks and makes life more interesting**, but the huge degree this has been happening lately is amazing. For that matter, she now rides her Argent kitty mount, and NEVER pulls out the death knight flame pony. Now don't that say somethin' about her and how she's looking at the world.
Oh, and now that she's making her way through the tournament, she also wants to clear out ALL the lower level dungeons that she can. Why? you might very well ask. Simple. She wants to have made that sort of a name for herself. And I couldn't be prouder.
* She had the striped nightsaber due to it being black, and needing a slower mount for when traveling with lower level buddies, and then after putzing around Zul'Drak she figured her spotted frostsaber buddy would stick around, so she promptly made that official (there's a quest chain in there – I totally recommend the area for 80's grinding up rep and gold). I still get warm fuzzies watching the two of them cruising around.
** Interesting. Hah. Hepzibet is another “Interesting” character. She likes her anything with chiton, to the point where I spent 800 gold in the Booty Bay AH just to get her a Durotar scorpid. Which then goes and randomly stings her whenever it's out (which is ALL THE DAMN TIME) – and she couldn't be happier. Sigh. “Interesting.” Riiiiight.
Let's take a look, shall we?
First off, Kharisa started as a concept of the fairly typical emo death knight – o woe is me, I have been slain and raised up to fight those I fought with etc. etc. A former priestess, and that was a realization that took time, effort, and a deliberate attempt to discover. I literally spent days wandering around with the random thought of “so was my DK a this or a that in life? Why or why not?” She was quiet in the way I think of “a toon,” to use the pejorative term that's so prevalent through the game. This is a persona which I use to play Warcraft, with little in the way of individual wants or desires in the sense of role playing. She skins and herbs because those are good skills for the secondary benefits (self healing and increased crits), not to mention makin' money.
Then Blizzard went and had its anniversary (Jeebus, it's been a year??!?) - or something like that, I'm honestly not sure. No, wait, I went and checked the Armory, and yes, that was it. Kharisa got a Baby Blizzard Bear in the mail. And like all good obsessed folks, I had her running around with it a lot.
Not so much my other characters, just her. And then Christmas rolled around, and hey presto, more pets. And that was when she started to display some personality.
She wanted vanity pets. Living things. Like her herbalism, this was a connection to life, the connection that she'd lost and become so cold without (thus, the lack of personality and quirks).
Uh oh.
It was little things like that. A rabid interest in herbalism. Buying vanity pet after vanity pet, and going through all the little quest chains to get so many of the silly things. My gods, the way she'd get a sprite darter, and then never summon it, because she's its Mommy, and would never want to put it in danger. Avoiding the Plaguelands even as she was grinding up the herbalism to get into Outlands usefully, for the good of the guild, of course (guild, alts, same difference).
And then Northrend. Oh, my, Northrend. Home of the Lich King, where his will extends everywhere, where almost literally everything you encounter has had his finger touch upon it.
Kharisa, as a death knight, rather understandably hates him with a passion that both undying and beyond fierce. And as she ran into more and more of his schemes and manipulations, more and more evidence that nothing happens in Northrend without Arthas' influence, she became more and more determined to Take. Him. Down. This made questing easier, with one singular foe behind everything and providing motivation and direction.
And then 80. Huh. The peak of potential. I'd done the Argent Crusade quest earlier, at like 77 or something, and she was interested, so we were off to fight for the tournament!
And bored out of our minds. I'd putz around with those dailies, looking to represent Darnassus, but... meh. It didn't fit well. So before too long, we went back to other things. Exploring the world – and that was fun. Yay, achievements! And then working through the quests in several zones, in particular Zul'Drak (she liked Zul'Drak – something about how she was actively helping those folks and the spirit kitty who's name I forget). And then the.... wonderful wonderful grind with the Cenarion Expedition, and getting their war hippogryph.
And only when she had done those things did we both turn around and face the tournament, and she's been going to town on that stuff lately. Just today we knocked Exodar out, and now all that's left is getting to represent the Gnomes. Four out of five factions, and she's going to be champion of them all. That's not me talking there, that's her.
It took me a bit to understand all of this. She didn't feel comfortable with the tournament at first, because she still felt unworthy to represent Darnassus. World exploration is a nice achievement and all, and the tabard and title are nice too, but it was for the spectacle, the renown that she was after. To do something, and to be known – to have her name linked to something other than a dead priestess and/or a death knight. There was a similar drive with the hippogryph – she wanted to get in touch with that part of her culture, the part of kaldorei that is intimately tied to their flying mounts. Somehow, by proving herself to the druids (interestingly, the half of the culture that's somewhat opposed to the priesthood, or at least... outside of the priests' domain), this made it ok to go back to the tournament and start to actively participate in her culture.
It helps/helped that part of that is ALLL about taking down Arthas.
It's funny how all that ties together. So ok, she was there, and got to represent Darnassus, but that wasn't good enough. She wanted to be an exalted champion. Ok, so it's easy enough to get Writs from the dailies to help purchase reputation increases, and then the holidays hit, and those dailies helped with overall alliance reputation, so all was nifty keen.
Until the last day (approximately?) of the Thanksgiving holiday. After she did all the rep turn ins. And was about 100 points short of exalted. Holy SHITE I haven't had a character step up into the driver's seat that hard since my table top days. I was running around, looking for a quest to do, any quest, but the low level bitty stuff would net me, what, a dozen points at a time hells no need this NOW and – OOO! Cloth turn in! I betcha she can turn in yes, yes we can do wool or rune cloth or – HOLY SHIT I'M CARRYING 60 WOOL ON ME AS IS TURN IN THANK YOU GODS - !
Exalted. Ding.
It's funny. I swear my hands were shaking at least a little bit as I turned ON the title “of Darnassus,” and it's really funny that as pretentious as I tend to think almost all the titles are, that one she is leaving on.
It was... coming home, for her, in a strange way. She'd regained something important, and somehow fundamental with that. And it's funny how even more ties together; she then promptly went out and bought all the saber mounts that she didn't have*, including the cheaper Argent Tournament mount. Now, I did that because there's more than one achievement there, but she did it because she wants to open a mount stable somewhere.
Life. She is motivated by life, and her need for a connection to it, and her past with Darnassus. And she's changing more and more rapidly lately to do that, and her coming out of her shell is more than a little startling. I like it; I always like it when a character manifests personality and quirks and makes life more interesting**, but the huge degree this has been happening lately is amazing. For that matter, she now rides her Argent kitty mount, and NEVER pulls out the death knight flame pony. Now don't that say somethin' about her and how she's looking at the world.
Oh, and now that she's making her way through the tournament, she also wants to clear out ALL the lower level dungeons that she can. Why? you might very well ask. Simple. She wants to have made that sort of a name for herself. And I couldn't be prouder.
* She had the striped nightsaber due to it being black, and needing a slower mount for when traveling with lower level buddies, and then after putzing around Zul'Drak she figured her spotted frostsaber buddy would stick around, so she promptly made that official (there's a quest chain in there – I totally recommend the area for 80's grinding up rep and gold). I still get warm fuzzies watching the two of them cruising around.
** Interesting. Hah. Hepzibet is another “Interesting” character. She likes her anything with chiton, to the point where I spent 800 gold in the Booty Bay AH just to get her a Durotar scorpid. Which then goes and randomly stings her whenever it's out (which is ALL THE DAMN TIME) – and she couldn't be happier. Sigh. “Interesting.” Riiiiight.
