After filling out your profile , your first stop should be to the forum near the top of Althanas, the Realm of
Greeting. There you will make a thread (called a character sheet) detailing your character and the skills he or she starts with. You will
also be asked to provide your character's history and any equipment he or she starts with. Once you have posted the thread, a moderator
will look to approve your character.
Here is the format of the character sheet and some tips on filling it out:
----------------------------------------
Name:
Age:
Race:
Hair Color:
Eye Color:
Height:
Weight:
Occupation (Optional):
Personality (Optional): Give us an idea of your character’s traits. How does he or she interact with other people? What
does he or she think about themselves?
Appearance: Describe your character as he or she would appear to someone else. Links to reference material is allowed, but
a text description is preferred. Do not use [IMG] tags to display photos.
History: You should make your character's history as detailed and as creative as possible. The more history your character
has, the more interesting stories you will be able to write about him when you begin role-playing. However, be careful not to use
clichés, or other commonly used plotlines. It seems that every other character's parents were killed in some accident or murder, and that
their death was what led the character to become a hero. A detailed history is not required to play, but you'll find that building one
helps you to immediately jump into your story on the forums. It will also help give direction for future character growth.
Skills: Please clearly define and list every skill your character has. Skills are subjective abilities, based solely on
your character's knowledge, that can have an indirect affect on another character. Common Althanas skills are swordplay or marksmanship.
You may include adjectives to describe your skills as well. For example, you can make your character a "master swordsman," but realize
that your equipment quality and your tangible abilities might be too low to make this claim true. Skills are not moderated by the Realm
of Greeting staff on Althanas. Instead, they are moderated by the judges who read your threads. We allow you to have as many skills as
you want, so long as you don't
power game.
Abilities: Please clearly define and list every ability your character has. Abilities are tangible actions or traits that
have a direct affect on another player. They includes magic, speed, strength, etc. Racial traits, like elfish reflexes, are also
considered abilities. When considering racial traits, the moderators will ask you to compare them to a human. Each ability must be
written individually on your profile. Characters can begin with three (3) abilities. This number increases as the character's level
increases.
Note: Control over magic of a particular type will be considered a single ability, however you will be asked what your
character can do with it at each level.
Notes on Ability Combination. Recall that characters only have a certain number of abilities at each level.
-- "Stacked abilities," or individual abilities that combine to enhance the affect of the abilities, will be considered a separate,
unique ability at each level. For example, a fire tornado created by combining wind and fire control would be considered stacked and
would have to be listed separately of the fire and wind entries. Passive abilities (abilities that are always "on") that intentionally
combine with active abilities are considered "stacked" as well. An example of this is the ability to see in darkness combined with the
ability to create darkness.
-- "Sequential abilities," or individual abilities that are used one after another to create a combination result, do not count as a
separate, unique ability at each level. For example, if a character uses the wind to trip a character and then throws a fireball at him
while he's on the ground, this "wind-trip-ball" is not considered a unique ability and does not have to be listed. This will be
moderated by typical powergaming rules (which prevent the use of too many attacks in one post).
Equipment: It is not necessary to list all traveling necessities, but if you have items unique to your character, you
should describe them under this category. Remember that you will be able to purchase more equipment for your character in our market
forum, the Bazaar.
Familiars (Optional): A familiar is a minor adventuring companion, usually a small animal, demon, or humanoid of some sort.
This section may be skipped if you do not have one.
----------------------------------------
Once you’ve made this character sheet, copy/paste what you wrote into a new thread in the Character Registration Forum. One of our
Approval Moderators will then read your character sheet, and if they feel it needs anything added to it or taken away they'll ask you to
modify it. When a moderator determines that your character sheet is acceptable, they will then approve you and you may begin role-playing
at Althanas.
Approvals are vital at Althanas because they prevent players from creating overpowered characters. Getting your character approved is a
short process, and you can expect a waiting time of only a few hours. Please remember that YOU SHOULDN'T START A BATTLE OR QUEST BEFORE
YOUR CHARACTER IS APPROVED. If that rule is violated, a moderator will close the thread until you’ve been approved, at which point the
thread will be opened.
That's all the information you need to start role-playing on Althanas. If you want to jump right in, feel free to do so - but if you'd
like more information on how to introduce your character into the Althanas community, please continue to the next section. Also, if
you'd like to learn more about Althanas's many unique features, you can do so by moving to the section entitled "
Battles and
Quests."