Friday Five — Speed Edition

Characters, Roleplaying 1 comment.

With the triumphant return of Anna of Too Many Annas after an encounter with an elite storm last month, I was hoping to see her Friday Five series come back as well.  Fortunately, Anna didn’t let us down; in “Friday Five, RP style - Speed Edition“, she encourages readers to answer five quick and simple questions regarding their characters.

Is your character tall/short/average?  What kind of build?

• Aniko Leanan’Sidhe, daughter of a minor sin’dorei house, stands shorter than many of her kin — a fact that has irked her to no end for centuries.
• Cili — originally known as Mariska Stormborne in life — would stand taller than the average human woman, but she now walks hunched over in undeath.  Fortunately undeath hasn’t been as unforgiving for her appearance, though most people would still have to look twice to note that she’s a woman.
• Human Csilla Kovács is perky, busty, and rather short; the young woman stands no more than five-foot-one.
• Eszti Nightwing is of average height and build for a kal’dorei.  She’s a bit flat-chested, but she makes up for it with legs that would put Tina Turner to shame.
• Having grown up in the open spaces of the Hinterland rather than under a mountain like many of her kin, dwarven rogue Hajnal Guthhrafn is leaner and less endowed than most of her kin.
• Irenke, Spirit Woman of a forest troll tribe in the Hinterlands, is a little below average in height, but is a full figured woman.  A less forgiving individual might call her overweight, but it’s all in the right places to end up with a very curvaceous and sensual woman.
• Orc daughter Silent Julcsa Breakspear possesses both the height and build that is expected of her race and gender.
• Fledgling tauren druid Lujza Spiritdancer is of average height and build for her age.  Her clumsiness, however, makes her appear much more bulky than she is.
• Cantankerous kal’dore priestess Rahel Isera’duna stands taller than many of her kin, but her body is bony and full of sharp edges.
• Former Vindicator Teca e’Veritas is of average height (perhaps slightly taller), but retains the bulk from muscles that her past profession built up over the years.  She is growing slightly leaner as the months pass and the draenei engages in more scholarly pursuits.

Name one thing quirky, unusual, or unexpected

• Aniko possesses a soft spot in her heart for a paladin who has taken it upon himself to redeem this warlock.
• Cili awoke in undeath blind; she hesitantly relies on her magic to assist her in day-to-day activities.
• Csilla is a blacksmith and adores being so with every fiber of her being — including people’s reactions when they learn this dimunitive priestess should pick such a profession.
• Eszti was a former sailor.
• Hajnal feels astrong bond with nature and will go out of her way to avoid large settlements.
• Irenke possesses a voracious appetite for men.  Race is not an issue.
• Julcsa shaves her head.
• Lujza is literally the bull running loose in the China shop; she’s horrifically clumsy despite her surname.
• Rahel really enjoys the theater, though this stubborn woman would never admit it for fear of losing face.
• Teca has an almost obsessive attachment to murlocs and has spent her time since crashing onto Azeroth studying these enigmatic creatures.

Name one thing stereotypical of class, race, or origin

• Aniko possesses the sin’dorei obsession and drive for the accumulation of magic.
• Cili loathes everyone and everything.
• Csilla is inherently a very honest and well-intentioned individual who goes out of her way to assist others.
• Eszti feels most at home in the wilderness.
• Hajnal doesn’t mind a stiff drink every once in a while.
• Irenke speaks in the expected troll patois.
• Julcsa communes with the spirits, as expected of a shaman.
• Lujza enjoys picking flowers.
• Rahel is a Sister of Elune, though she tends to think of her title as being something in the past.
• Teca is a former Vindicator.

Favorite (or least favorite) article of clothing?

• Aniko likes shoes — particularly ones with heels that grant her the appearance of standing taller.
• Cili neither sees nor cares for clothing.
• Csilla loathes dresses with every fiber of her being.
• Eszti will not wear any article of clothing that covers her face.  She relies far too much on her senses to muffle half of them.
• Hajnal is fond of a jaunty hat that she picked up on her travels.
• Irenke adores tight-fitting clothing that shows her curves to the best advantage.  There is one “frock” in particular that she’ll wear when given the opportunity.
• Julcsa doesn’t give much thought to her appearance, though she would much rather go barefoot when the opportunity presents itself.
• Lujza wears bangles around her wrists and ankles that she stubbornly wears despite how jarring they are when she falls.
• Rahel wears an oil-soaked rag that has been used numerous times in the past while tinkering.
• Teca picked up a rather revealing top shortly after her arrival.  Wearing it gives her a feeling of excitement that results from a fashion style that is probably rather jarring to the dedicated and serious draenei people.

What is your characters’ favorite color?

• Aniko: Gold.
• Cili: None.
• Csilla: Blue.
• Eszti: Silver.
• Hajnal: Green.
• Irenke: Red.
• Julcsa: Blue.
• Lujza: Blue.
• Rahel: Brown.
• Teca: Purple.

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Guess It’s a Lucky Week for Mounts

Csilla, General 4 comments.

It has to be: I managed to acquire my second mount drop of the week!

The Swift White Hawkstrider may be not as refined or majestic as Eszti’s current mount — Nerilka, a White Riding Talbuk of almost infinite patience and tranquility — but he will suffice for the time being.  He can’t be any worse than Eszti’s original and first mount, the enternally lackadaisical Striped Nightsaber named Sheagran; not only was he a bit hefty¹ but he was quite recalcitrant when it came to putting forth any effort!

My only disappointment is that I was hoping to collect mounts on Csilla rather than Eszti.  The only mount that I wish to get my kal’dorei huntress — and desperately at that! — is the Swift Razzashi Raptor!  This just means that I’ll have to try further on my perky priestess now.

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Tally-ho!

Csilla 5 comments.

About damned time!  One down, one to go.  Some three days remaining.

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The Epic Conclusion to a Story of Heroic Proportions

Csilla, Raiding 2 comments.

As I have mentioned before in the past, as a roleplayer I tend to maintain myself in character for the vast majority of my time within World of Warcraft.  My only clear cut exceptions are in raids, where the littlest bit of miscommunication can sometimes end with painful results — and neither of my raiding characters are suited to giving information during raids whether due to the manner of their speech or their lack of understanding.  As a result, the remainder of my characters’ actions could and should be considered their own.

That said, I have made a conscious effort not to adapt any of the major plots or storylines into my characters’ histories.  While suspension of belief can take a roleplayer very far¹, it can be difficult when that same roleplayer is defeating Defias Kingpin Edwin VanCleef on her tenth character.  As a result, while the efforts were performed in character and may be referenced by that same character in the future, they generally are not considered to be a significant portion of that character’s history.

I have, however, made one exception to this policy.

Nearly two years ago during the latter-fall, early-winter months in 2006, I had successfully managed to level my newly minted perky priestess Csilla Kovács to the then-level cap.  While I’d had fun playing the character and assisting my friends in the Shield of Dawn with completing their pre-The Burning Crusade objectives, I was definitely looking forward to raiding again after a yearlong absence.  My efforts in trying to obtain a raid for my Beast Mastery huntress — Eszti “Iron Legs” Nightwing, of course — had fallen through, mostly due to the fact that it appeared that every raid was chockfull of hunters and even if I were the epitome of huntery goodness it would be unlikely that any raid would have an opening for me.  On the other hand, raids left and right were clamoring for competent healers, specifically of the priestly variety.

In this vein, I managed to garner every piece of the Vestments of the Devout set² and had even managed to get into a Molten Core raid with The Exiled, led at the time by my friend Malichi.  While we made exhaustive effort to clear all of Molten Core prior to the expansion, a variety of factors prevented us from doing so.  Irregardless, the raid leadership planned forays into other dungeons, including the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj and Onyxia’s Lair.

At the time that this announcement was made, Csilla was unfortunately not attuned for Onyxia’s Lair, sadly having never completed the chain.  While I had made more-than-frequent efforts to complete it, I always seemed to run into problems with Jail Break!, the leg of the quest that required players to rescue Marshal Reginald Windsor from his imprisonment in Blackrock Depths and then escort him to the exit.  One of two things would invariably happen: the group with which I had joined would rescind on their promise to do the escort quest or somehow I would encounter some sort of bug that would prevent me from completing the quest.  My penultimate heroic effort met with failure when Windsor somehow strayed too far from me less than perhaps ten yards from the exit, leaving me frothing at the mouth in disgust.

My pleas to my guild for assistance in completing the chain were mostly met with hostility or total disregard.  I was hesitant to bother my fellow raiders because I didn’t want to take from their time spent in the game, especially when many of them had familial obligations outside of World of Warcraft and their time in game served as an escape for their otherwise hectic lives.

Perhaps maddened by my inability to complete this quest — which I had tried perhaps four dozen times in the past to no avail — I came to a decision and stomped³ my way to the entrance of Blackrock Depths: I was going to go with my raid to Onyxia’s Lair even if I had to do the damned instance all by myself!  And, despite the fact that I was a lowly Holy priestess in only a handful of Tier 1 mixed with some pieces of the Vestments of the Virtuous, I somehow managed to complete the quest on my own.

To this date, I’m not quite sure how I managed to finish Jail Break!  I know that it took many, many hours and more than just a few repairs.  I relied heavily on Mind Control to take down an enemy or two, only to cowardly run out of the door as soon as things started to look far more painful than my perky priestess could handle.  Select a mob, watch it die, run out, repeat.  Over, and over, and over again.  The packs with dogs were particularly difficult due to the fact that they often had only a single humanoid in them; I would have to take a Dark Iron dwarf remaining from one group and use him to defeat the dogs.

Once I had cleared both the way to Windsor and the path to the exit, I then heroically strode forward with him and healed as he tanked the enemies that would appear along the path.  Since I had  more or less cleared the entire area, I was able to Psychic Scream with impunity and watch our enemies flee in terror.  And when the damned quest was done and I could finally, finally meet up with Marshal Reginald Windsor in Stormwind City, I leaned back in my seat, a foolish grin on my face, and thought, Wow, I wonder if that’s how Csilla would feel right about now!

And it clicked.  This momentous event — no matter how foolhardy or asinine — was something of which I was proud.  Furthermore, it was exactly something that Csilla would do; I could easily see my plucky, perky diminutive priestess getting it into her head to do something like this on her own and somehow being successful.  Not to mention the interesting dynamic that would occur when a teenage priestess of Light met up with a crotchety veteran of war who had spent quite a bit of time locked away in a dungeon. Marshal Reginald Windsor⁴ would be a wonderful foil to Csilla Kovács.

Unfortunately, that made the events that followed in Stormwind that much more traumatic to the poor girl, but that’s an aside.

I was reflecting on these past events when I found myself in Onyxia’s Lair last night after a series of fights with Coren Direbrew.  Friend Draccos got into a raid to down the dragon herself and I gleefully jumped at the chance to join him.  You see, despite the fact that Csilla bonded with Reginald Windsor and that I finally managed to get the character attuned, I never really had the opportunity to defeat Onyxia on this particular incarnation of my healing priestess.  Two years after that fateful evening, this was still something that lingered heavily on her mind.  Until last night, when Csilla Kovács — daughter of György Kovács, a plain man from Elwynn Forest who owned his own vineyard — assisted nine others in slaying the beast.

Then, and only then, did the young woman finally got her revenge by giving the fallen dragon a swift kick to the head with one dainty foot!

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Where in the World?

Csilla, Roleplaying 2 comments.

In the not-so-brief interlude of my absence, I was tagged by a fellow World of Warcraft blogger.  Due to my absence, I hadn’t realized this but it will be rectified now!

Krizzlybear of Frost is the New Black has been eagerly posting a number of topics on roleplaying, his thoughts, and gnomes.  In fact, a lot about gnomes!  In this vein, in one of his more recent posts he followed an Internet trend and posted his reactions on a number of rather well-know events — at least within the World of Warcraft!  Done from the perspective of the gnome Wimzig, the post “Wimzig’s Whimsy: Where in the World?” looks back on where he was during some significant events in the universe.  I was tagged in the post as the perky priestess Csilla Kovács.

Oh goodie!  So, where was Csilla Kovács during:

The Battle of Mount Hyjal? (Warcraft 3)

Probably a bit t’ be said ’bout tha’ whole thing since it was all important-like an’ all, but I ain’t the one t’ be sayin’ it, yah?  I was jes’ a gel myself at the time, perhaps ’bout, oh, ten or eleven or so.  Was still livin’ on m’pappy’s vineyard with a brood o’ sisters an’ brothers, workin’ ’bout an’ doing chores.  It was real hard-like, t’ be honest, ’cause our pappy was out there fightin’, with them greenskins an’ pointy-eared fellahs, workin’ t’ save some tree.

Which don’t make much sense t’ me, y’know?  We’s always out there clearin’ the trees an’ plants an’ like tha’ are growin’ up ’round these parts fer some reason or other an’ then m’pappy goes out an’ fights t’ save some silly tree.  Was summat special ’bout it, I bet, but ain’t never heard much ’bout it.  Don’t make no sense if’n ya ask me.

But ya didn’t ask, did ya?  So all I can say ’bout Mount Hyjal is tha’ m’pappy was there an’ he don’t talk ’bout it never, even when we ask real fierce-like.  But we’s real glad he came back!

The Opening of the Dark Portal (by Medivh)?

Phew, weren’t ’round fer tha’ neither!  We humans ain’t so long livin’ as others, y’know, so we ain’t able t’ see all o’ them things yer askin’ ’bout.  Know tha’ Stormwind got broken up real bad, though, when them greenskins came through the portal.  We fought pretty fierce-like ‘gainst the Horde, but didn’t do us no good, y’know?  Some lordy-type thought he was real smart-like an’ tha’ them greeskin fellahs couldn’t hurt us, but he weren’t right at all.

Mister General Tanriel, sir, he said all them lord fellahs ain’t as dumb as some, but they don’t seem too smart t’ me sometimes.  Ain’t got them any common sense, yah?  Should try livin’ on a farm or summat — get them some real learnin’ done!

The Naxxramas Event?

Now this, this is summat I know all ’bout!  I was ’round fer this one.  Had jes’ joined up with them fellahs in the Shield o’ Dawn an’ was under the command o’ mister General Draj, sir, an’ mister General Tanriel, sir.  They was helpin’ me with all o’ this trainin’ an’ the like when they had t’ stop ’cause o’ them floaty castles in the sky.

Was in Stormwind, in fackt, jes’ when the first one appeared.  The sky turned all black an’ the sun disappeared an’ a lot o’ people were real frightened ’cause we didn’t know nowt ’bout wha’ was going on.  Then these undead fellahs jes’ appeared — like Tadams does sometimes, y’know?  All sudden-like?  Whoosh!  An’ they’re there! — an’ started makin’ their was towards the Keep where the little king was holdin’ his court.  The guards weren’t happy none, rushin’ towards them deaders, swingin’ their swords an’ callin’ fer help.  An’ the cry went out an’ everyone joined in, from the bakers t’ other travelers from ’round the world who was in Stormwind City at the time.  We was hackin’ an’ magickin’ an’ healinatin’ an’ we managed t’ stop this big deader jes’ afore he managed t’ get t’ Old town!

Weren’t ’til later tha’ we found out the deaders was attackin’ all over the world, even where them Horde fellahs was.  Took a lot o’ effort t’ clear up the world an’ set it all proper again, but I weren’t too involved in tha’ — I was too busy learnin’ how t’ be a real soldier, workin’ in the Shield of Dawn.

The Sundering?

T’ be real honest-like — ’cause y’know m’pappy wouldn’t have no gel o’ his be any other way! — I ain’t knowin’ too much ’bout this.  I know it has summat t’ do with them Burnin’ Crusade fellahs an’ how they wants t’ take over all the world, but it happended a long, long, long, long time ago, well afore m’granpappy’s pappy’s pappy was even ’round.

I heard a bit o’ it afore from some pointy-eared fellahs tha’ was talkin’ ’bout it one evenin’.  An’ miss Rahel, ma’am, got real drunk-like one night on some dwarven ale an’ was tellin’ stories ’bout it.  ‘Bout how they came ’cause o’ some pointy-earred queenie was all silly-like an’ wanted summat tha’ she weren’t supposed t’ have an’ a whole bunch of peoples got real hurt.  Like, killed hurt.  An’ then the silly pointy-earred queen, she went an’ broke up the whole world ’til it became wha’ is now.  Y’know, with all o’ them different continents, like the one with miss Proudmoore an’ bucktooths an’ cowpeoples an’ greenskins, an’ then ours with all o’ us normal human fellahs.

But, like I said afore, was a real long time ago.

The Crashing of the Exodar?

Remember hearin’ ’bout those blueskin fellahs from mister Tanriel, sir.  Didn’t see much myself, but he an’ miss Esz — Y’know o’ tha’ pointy-eared lady?  She’s pretty nice-like, if’n ya approach her right, but she’s a little off in the head, if’n ya know wha’ I mean.  Called us her pack, like we was some animals. — they went t’ some party after them draenei fell from the sky an’ they got t’ talk t’ some official-type fellah.

I was in The Regiment at the time, workin’ under Daq, but he weren’t Daq no more.  He had made hisself some sort o’ General an’ was workin’ with miss Esz an’ miss Aura an’ all o’ these fellahs tha’ I knew.  Y’see, the Shield o’ Dawn decided they was lookin’ fer some like-minded fellahs an’ decided them The Regiment fellahs was the way t’ go.  So Daq was now General Daq, sir, an’ we was workin’ on this here alliance.

Oh, sorry, was ramblin’ again.  M’pappy says I does tha’ sometimes, but I ain’t able t’ stop it all o’ the time.  Says my jaws’re going t’ get all worn away one day from how much I talk, y’know?  Anyway, ’bout the Exodar?  Like I said, heard ’bout it from mister Tanriel, when we was in a tavern in Ironforge.  Hidgo an’ I, we was drinkin’ summat fierce, with Tadams an’ mister Aduin an’ even Frelic — who weren’t even an officer hisself at the time.  Tha’ was later.  Anyway, in walks mister Tanriel, lookin’ all serious when we was jes’ havin’ fun.  Thought we were in trouble, but instead he went an’ told us all ’bout how he was tryin’ t’ make an alliance with them blueskin fellahs so tha’ we’d have more allies fer when the big fight came.  Whenever it did, yah?

Some o’ them joined later, but I didn’t get t’ know them too well.  Helped out miss Assaanne a bit, but tha’s ’bout it!

Tag, You’re it!

The following wonderful individuals are invited to continue Krizzlybear’s original efforts by writing their own responses in character:

• Draccos of Flying J’s Weblog;
• Jezrael at DPS: We Deliver;
• Loronar of 35 Yards Out¹
• Tankette over at Tankette’s Rambles, but as a certain troll we all know and love; and
• The delicious duo of LF3M who have expressed interest in roleplaying, Kiyo and Edge.

For those of you who may not know the deal, answer the above five questions in character on your site.²  Once done, feel free to drop back and let us know your answers.  And don’t forget to tag some other schmucks World of Warcraft bloggers to participate!

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