Starting Off and Making Your Character

This is an introduction to one of the very first things you'll be doing here: creating your character. However, after reading this (as I will repeat at the bottom of this post), instead of jumping right to creating your character, I suggest you read through how to play the game from the inside, and how to play it from the outside before doing much more, BUT, read this first. 

Take note, however: While this site may have many similarities to other traditional RPGs, it is entirely unique, and many of the traditional ideas (such as classes and npc species (elves)) have been twisted greatly from what you may be familial with. If you walk into this game assuming it is dungeons and dragons, it may be difficult to adjust.

ALSO, you should know that, before you get overwhelmed by the amount of rules, and the length of them; they are references to use when you are unsure about how something works. You are not expected to memorize them, so don't let that be a turn off for the game.

      Your character will effectively be you. You will interact through them, fight with them, and play the whole game with them. 
       You are completely in control of your own characters actions, and no one else can make them do anything. You decide your character's thoughts, feelings, emotions, speech, anything and everything.
      Now, keep in mind that every other character you will interact with will also belong to a person, and they have that same control over their character.
       The process of creating a character is quite simple, however there are a few very important decisions that need to be made. Before making these, make sure to read the rules on the game, which can be found here. While may of these only apply to the in-game, be sure to at least read the overview and the rules on characters before continuing on to make your character. 
       Now, let's start making your character. To do this, I'll walk you through filling out the format, which can be found here.
       The first 5 items on this format are fairly simple, but also very important when making your character. What is their name? How old are they? Are they female, or male? What do they look like? How do they think? What has their life been like so far? All of these make your character who they are. 
       After filling those out, you may come to something confusing; their category. What is that? Well, that's what I'm here for. There are three categories, that ever single character on the site falls into (except Seers, but you'll find out about them later). The three categories are fairly simply, the fighter, the scholar, and the zealot. Each one of these, however, are different, and will change your character in the long run. To understand what the characters of these categories might be like, you can read the short descriptions under them here. In the end, you will have to choose one of the three for your character to start as. Don't worry, choosing one over another won't change your character's personality or looks at all. What they do change though, is how and what your character does in combat. I'll explain briefly some differences the categories have in combat, just so that you get a rough idea.
       The fighter, as you might assume from the name, excels in fighting, usually hand to hand with sword and other weapons. They don't have a lot of magic or spells, but are very tough and can be very skilled with whatever weapon they choose. The scholar, unlike the fighter, is very strong in spells, but weak with weapons. They are likely to shoot bolts of magic at their opponent, or use their magic for personal gain. Last, but not least, is the zealot. The zealot is similar to the scholar, but also different in many ways. The zealots use lots of magic, but generally only focus on one specific thing, such as fire magic, where a scholar might use all elements with their magic. This specific focus allows the zealot to use much stronger spells than the scholar, but only in their specific focus. Each category also has spells and skills that every character who is a part of that category can use, but you can't use a spell or skill that isn't a part of your category (a knight can't use a scholar spell, and a scholar can't use a knight skill). Get it?
       Now, after explaining the categories, you should have some idea of which your character will start as, so, I will move to the next item. Class. Now, this doesn't mean your social class at all. Your class is almost like a sub-division to your category. If you look, you'll see that each category has multiple classes inside of it. These classes are related to their category but get a little more specific. For example, inside of the fighter category, there is the knight class and the berserker class. Both are fighters, but also are different kinds of fighters, with the knight almost being a tank of armor, and the berserker generally running into battle naked. Both are clearly fighters, but have very different styles of fighting.
       Just reading the names, you might get an idea of which your character will be, but there are things you need to know. The way classes work are very similar to the way that categories work, in the sense that, each class has its own unique skills and spells, but you can only use them if you are that class. Don't be worried, if your class is under the zealot category, you can use any skills or spells that are for all zealots, however, you can't use skills or spells from the other zealot classes except your own.            Got it?
       Now that you've gotten the category and classes out of the way, the next word on the list may be confusing to you as well. Attributes. Well, not to fear, I'm going to ramble and explain away again. Attributes, in case you can't tell from the list underneath it, are characteristics of your character. Each one of these is described in full detail in the rules on attributes  here, when you are ready, that is. Now, don't start filling in numbers there just yet, because they have already been determined based on what  category you've picked. Don't freak out now, because these are not your attributes forever, and when you level up, you can put points into any attribute you want. You also start with one skill or spell, a weapon, and a set of armor, all also based off your starting category. If you are interested in any of these, or you simply want to fill in your starting attributes for your character creation, you can go here for the fighter, here for the scholar, and here for the zealot. 
       After you're done filling in your attributes, you should notice you're almost done. Yay! However, there is still one more piece of information left, and it is just as important as the rest. Your homeland. 
       This is where you would actually start your adventure. There are 7 lands to choose from for this option, and each one is fairly different, but also share many parts. If you want to read more about each land, and maybe even take a look at what is going on inside each one, you can do that here. After making this decision, you're done! 
Now, you just simply have to make a new topic here, complete with the format you fill out, and wait for it to be approved. 
       After you've made this, and it has been approved, you'll see that you need to make a character sheet, which is just a simpler version of your character creation. However, at the bottom is a place where you are meant to provide a link to your character creation. You can either just copy and paste the url there, or you can click on the little "chain link" image, up in the typing box, right under the "underline button", and make things look a bit nicer. After that, you will also need to link that character sheet as your signature. This can be found by simply clicking on your profile, and finding "signature". If done correctly, your signature, which should be the url or link to your character sheet, should appear on every post from here on out.
       While you're waiting, or even if your character has been approved, you should continue reading here to learn more about playing the game.
Have fun, and good luck!