Not yet, as Pantheon has not recognized the necessity of half-elves!!! In all honesty, I have a few different options depending on available names. It will also depend on the class/race combos that I chose to play (currently considering a human dire lord and an elven ranger).
I have a few character types that turn up, sometimes named the same, but really I don't have one, regular persona that I reuse over and over.
I like to have a back-story in mind for each I make, but I also change that depending on the race, class, world, society, profession, or whatever, that the character I'm making for a game finds itself in.
I know people do it and, if that's fun to them, then cool, but I would find it a bit odd to squeeze a historic, favourite avatar into every new game I play.
Even as an RP server person, I never made a backstory for my character like I would for D&D. I set tenets on how I will act, lines I won't cross, goals for my character, then let the story write itself. Depending on the world, those can change at times. (I get along with everyone, but those filthy Skar who attacked my city!)
As a gnome, I will initially be trying to gain and keep faction access to every race's home town and all the peacefull factions. That may mean I won't be able to go to some dungeons or nice farm areas, but I am hopeful there are enough common enemies to face around the world. I want to see the world, not start a war. Lean good, but stay out of conflict between the races. I look forward to seeing where the game takes me.
In D&D you can work with the DM to make the backstory meaningful. Bring characters from your past into the adventure. Turn to them for resolving a problem they happen to be able to help with. That doesn't really work for MMOs. Unless there are going to be preset background options to work around,which I really do not want to see, I don't think a backstory in an MMO will do anything but seem rediculous. 'A farmer eh? ... so what crops di- Hey where are you going?'
She will. Or, more accurately, they will.
Unlike some of us I choose not to get attached to any particular class or race at this time. Too much can change before release. So no backstory yet.
Though I suppose I could pick a generic one.
Throughout my adolescence ma pushed me to stay in the family business. She said business was good, it was a safe way to earn a living without risking constant injuries and deaths, and if I learned a few extra skills, most notably the ability to cast cure disease, I would be a real hit. But I was always a restless girl and hated spending most of my working hours in bed so as soon as I could I ran away.
I don't really do complete backstories for my characters but I do build personas for them based on what I know about their race, and other starting choices. I'm a very subtle roleplayer in these games and so instead of writing out stories, my preference is just to have a set of attitudes and motivations for each character and go from there. Their story evolves as I play.
Here's mine:
A prophecy states that a female child with a special birthmark will herald the downfall of the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda, she imprisons all pregnant women in her realm to prevent its fulfillment. When the child is born, the mother begs the midwife to smuggle the infant to safety. The midwife reluctantly accepts and leaves Nockmaar Castle unnoticed. The mother is executed; the midwife is hunted down and eventually found. Knowing she cannot escape, the midwife sets the baby on a makeshift raft of grass and sends her down a river before being killed by Nockmaar hounds. Bavmorda, furious about the escape, sends her daughter Sorsha and her army's commander, General Kael, to find the baby.
The baby drifts downriver to a village of Nelwyn (dwarves) and comes into the care of Willow Ufgood, a kind farmer and conjurer with hopes to become a real sorcerer. Willow's wife Kiaya and his children fall in love with the baby immediately, and Willow, after some resistance, quickly grows to love her as well. The next day the village is attacked by a lone Nockmaar hound; after the village warriors kill it, they deduce it was after a baby. Willow reveals the baby to the High Aldwin, the village sorcerer, who declares the child is special and that she must be taken back to the Daikini (humans).
Willow, due to his love for the child, is selected to accompany the party of volunteers in returning the baby. At the Daikini Crossroads, they find a human warrior named Madmartigan trapped in a crow's cage. While the rest of the party wants to give the baby to Madmartigan and go home immediately, Willow and his friend Meegosh refuse, so the others leave. After spending the night at the crossroads and meeting an army led by Airk Thaughbaer, an old friend of Madmartigan's marching against Bavmorda, Willow reluctantly decides to free Madmartigan and hand the baby over to him.
As Meegosh and Willow are headed home, they find the baby was stolen by a group of Brownies. They chase the Brownies and are trapped, but are rescued by the Fairy Queen Cherlindrea. Cherlindrea tells Willow that the baby is Elora Danan, the future empress of Tir Asleen, and Bavmorda's bane. She gives Willow her wand and assigns him the task of helping Elora fulfill her destiny. Willow sends Meegosh home, and two of the Brownies, Franjean and Rool, are assigned to help Willow find the sorceress Fin Raziel. The three of them find Madmartigan at a tavern, where he is disguised as a woman to hide from Llug, a cuckolded husband. Sorsha arrives and reveals his identity; Llug, furious upon the realization that Madmartigan is not a woman, starts a brawl, allowing Willow, Madmartigan, and the brownies to escape. Madmartigan guides them to the lake where Raziel lives before departing.
The companions find Raziel, but discover she has been transformed into a brushtail possum by Bavmorda. Willow and his party return with her to shore but encounter Sorsha, who already has Madmartigan in custody. They are taken to a snowbound mountain camp of the Nockmaar army where Willow tries to restore Raziel, but turns her into a rook instead. Madmartigan is accidentally dosed with love dust by the Brownies during their escape and ends up declaring his undying love for Sorsha, much to her disbelief. The prisoners escape with the baby and reach a village at the foot of the mountain. While hiding, they again encounter Airk and what remains of his army, recently defeated by Bavmorda's forces. Madmartigan proclaims his loyalty to the Nelwyn and promises to protect Willow and Elora.
Willow and Madmartigan take Sorsha hostage, but she escapes to tell Kael where they are going. They arrive at the castle of Tir Asleen only to discover that it is now overrun by trolls and the inhabitants have all been cursed by Bavmorda. Madmartigan gathers armor and weapons to prepare for the assault from Kael and Sorsha. During the fighting, Sorsha realizes she has developed feelings for Madmartigan and joins him and Willow in opposing her mother. Willow accidentally turns a troll into an "Eborsisk", a massive, fire-breathing, two-headed dragon-like monster that begins attacking everything it sees until Madmartigan kills it. Airk arrives with his army, turning the tide of battle. Kael kidnaps Elora and escapes to Nockmaar where he reports Sorsha's betrayal to Bavmorda. She orders the preparation of the ritual to banish Elora's soul.
Airk's army, Willow, and the others arrive at Nockmaar to lay siege, but Bavmorda turns most of them into pigs. Willow escapes when Raziel has him use a protective spell. He succeeds in turning Raziel human again, and she removes Bavmorda's spell from the army. They trick their way into the castle and, in the ensuing battle, Airk is killed by Kael, who is in turn slain by Madmartigan. Sorsha leads Willow and Raziel to the ritual chamber, interrupting Elora's sacrifice. Bavmorda incapacitates Sorsha and then duels magically with Raziel, rendering her unconscious. Willow uses an "old disappearing pig trick" to fool Bavmorda into thinking that Elora has been sent to a realm beyond her reach; foiled and enraged, Bavmorda accidentally calls the ritual's final word, condemning her own soul to the dark realm.
After the victory celebration, Willow is rewarded with a magic book to aid him in becoming a sorcerer, and Sorsha and Madmartigan remain in a restored Tir Asleen to raise Elora together. Willow returns home to a hero's welcome and is happily reunited with his family.
Just kidding.. yea, I have none.
Around 1988/1989, I was playing text-based MUDs and PVP online games via dialup.
My friend and coworker and I started playing quite a bit. We were in graduate school together as well and there was a version of Skrenta's Monster server running there.
http://www.skrenta.com/monster/final.html
Around that time, we started frequenting a local Italian restaurant advertising "authentic" pasta fagioli. We found it hysterically imbecilic that they wrote it on their chalkboard as Pasta Fazool
When we got back from lunch we started up a game (at work) and I named a new character Fazool, and we had a good laugh.
I liked the sound of it and kept the name and the backstory was lost and this became my online name.
In EQ, it is Fazool Thunderwood, woodelf druid, and has been so for two decades.
My equally "main" character is a high elf enchanter named Ethyre Iri'Descent which is a nod to enchanting gems (irridescence) and our RL group games of Descent and Descent3D.
I had developed a backstory for my characters gradually over the years and played my characters with their backstory in mind - picking quests and enemies that fit that story.
When I began two-boxing them I wrote and posted short stories of their exploits. They were distant relatives. Fazool an orphaned elf, Ethyre the offspring of well-to-do Felwithe residents. Fazool viewed the high elves as more family than those from Kelethin and once he left he never came back. Ethyre still had close ties and came back frequently for guild training, banking and tradeskilling in his home town.
Together, they ventured off to conquer Kunark, Velious, Luclin and beyond.
One of the things I've thought about during the long draught of good MMO's is that one of the main problems for me is that players often try to get to know each other in real life. Now, that is not a bad thing, but it removes some of the emersion for me. With that said, when I finally create my Pantheon character he will certainly have a backstory and everything I do in-game will be that character. Not me in real life. So if someone asks where I'm from, even if I know they're asking about me personally, I'll be answering them from my characters perspective.
I don't have his backstory written yet though, I don't even know what race/class I'll be playing for sure yet. Soon as that's all ironed out though I'll be working on it :)
quelanoir stormstrider
ember elf(hopefully enchanter)
middle aged female
based in the port city of ru'lun
in charge of the inquisition commando unit(icu) task force
associated with the council of nine branches intelligence agency
has connections to the thronefast six investigations congolmerate(sic)
access to use of illegal and exotic equipment
active in extermination of key revenant assets
operates in secrecy with few limitations
recruits individuals based on profound resilence to corruption, dogmatic loyality and highly skilled regardless of race or gender
proned to committing acts of evil as long as it is lawful
proned to committing random acts of kindness
skin colour is a pink-purplish skin
dark teal coloured shoulder length wavy hair
extremely toned borderline muscular and very tall
eyes have a demonic crystallike appearance with a sea blue green glow that makes people want to vomit if they look too long
enchanting but grotesque
is actually blind to normal eyesight without the aid of esoteric spectacles(uncommon fuel source)
can see truth in all at the cost of sensory overload if peering for more than a minute at hour intervals and no more than three minutes a day
will phase out of the material plane indefinitely
can shunt vision off without closing eyes(elven mind tricks)
physical changes is due to overexposure to revenant acclimation(yea i threw it in here)
likes people
hates being around people
this is still a wip since i don't know what the lore is set in stone yet
Kilsin said:Community Debate - Does your main character have a back story? If so, tell us about it! #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
Urk Djarid was a successful logger and finally got to meet his hero a master carpenter. The carpenters styles are known around the world. In the few few minutes he could tell that the carpenter had a lot going on, and was drowning under the weight of his situation:
The carpenter had never owned a wood shop of his own, every shop he'd worked at had been owned by an artless dodger. There had been times these types would build a shop for him under the pretense that is was his shop, only to pull the rug out from under him once work was flowing. So the carpenter saved and saved till he thought he had enough and could actually go out and build his own wood shop.
Urk met his hero during this period, the construction of the wood shop. Star struck, Urk agreed to help his hero with some lumber nessessary to complete the shop.
Due to confusion and lack of transparency the lumber was not able to make it to site as soon as the master carpenter and his newly founded guild wanted. Urk always regrets not explaining that a big batch of lumber comes down a certain time of year, annually dependent upon the size of the lumber he has in stock- because the day after he explained that the lumber for the shop wouldn't be delivered as soon as the master and his guild needed- the master died in his cottage.
Urk blames himself for his lack of transparency, he did not give the reason for the lumber not arriving as soon as they wanted. He feels if he would have explained his lumber business it would have alleved the immediate stress cause by his agreement with his Hero.
Urk left the lumber busines, and now wanders almost aimlessly across the face of timorous with a chip: believing he was the straw that broke the camels back.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - Does your main character have a back story? If so, tell us about it! #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
Nope. I don't do RP. I've tried it a few times and find it exhausting. I only go as far as sometimes giving my characters a personality and occasionally use that for humorous effect. Most of the time I play as me, the player, and backstories for my characters serve no purpose.
Props to those who do, though.
I will rush at any opportunity to play on an RP server, but I don't start from backstory, no. For me, it's all about using a personality as a template for gameplay, guiding what choices I make in general and how the character progresses.
If I do build a "pre-game" history, I build it backwards from that. But even then, I don't like throwing it around at people because I think it's pretty self-indulgent... Most roleplayers don't really care to know everbody's life story, I suspect, if it doesn't come out naturally in conversation.
But maybe the spirit of the question is more about general roleplaying plans; and in that case sure, my hope is to have two characters of pretty different temperaments. The basics of them are plenty stereotypical: