Lyssta - Application

PLAYER INFORMATION
How long (approximately) have you been playing World of Warcraft?

I registered on the Sha'tar the day it was opened. Unemployed as I was at the time, I was fourth level 60 alliance druid on the server, before going back and starting again as a gnome warrior, slowly and heavily roleplayed. I then took a long break, coming back just before Wrath, and levelling an alliance priest all the way to heroics, becoming an officer in a local guild and running several Wintergrasp victories (and I guess some defeats when people weren't listening). I left again when the guild imploded.

How confident would you say you are with the English language?

BA in Philosophy standard, casual grammar Nazi.

What experience do you have with roleplaying in the past?

I have been running table-top games for around 10 years. I have been running a local larp with around 30 players twice a week for the last 3-4 years. Neither of these necessarily prove that I'm any *good* at it, but if there's one thing I've learned in all this time: one of the most valuable assets in a roleplayer is *reliablility*.

What experience do you have within the World of Warcraft?

Extensive heroic runs in Wrath. I've been in pugged raids a couple of times, including as off-tank. I've not been in large, organised, well-equipped or well-played guilds, so I've sadly missed most raids, including, tragically, never having set foot in Icecrown.

Refer above for RP experience in WoW.

If you were to join the guild, what would you bring to the strong OOC community the guild shares?

I have the ability to organise (RP) events, and would strive to structure them in such a way that they can offer everyone who attends something. I am deeply interested in RP theory as well, and would love the opportunity to learn from other people about WoW RP - a very distinct beast from all other forms of RP, so far as I have ever encountered it. Equally, I'd love to give constructive feedback to players and officers, were I asked for it.

If you were to join the guild, how often would you be able to play?

I tend to have an incredibly busy schedule in real life, for 30 weeks out of 52. Apart from a full-time job and a wife (although she plays WoW more than me), Monday evenings are taken up largely by ref meetings, tuesdays with writing, wednesdays with larp, thursdays with going out with RL friends, and either friday or saturday for another ref meeting, and then all day sunday with more larp. This is only during term times: I tend to have a lot more free time between University term times. Realistically speaking? Maybe an hour mon-tues, a couple of hours thurs-fri, most of sat and maybe sun morning.

If you were to join the guild what would be your priority when online?

In order: roleplay currently happening; instance currently happening; guild roleplay; the game. I wouldn't drop out of roleplay I was enjoying to do anything else. I wouldn't drop out of an instance at the drop of a hat. I wouldn't go off and play other stuff if RP was on offer.

CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Lyssta

Gender: Female

Current Occupation: Adventurer

Age: Maybe mid-late twenties at death. Raised by the Val'kyr in Deathknell recently (let's gloss over how she's now fighting against the Lich King in Northrend...)

Race: Undead human

Level: 74 or 75.

In-game Class & Spec': Combat Rogue.

IC Class: I'm sceptical about the concept of an 'IC Class'. I think the idea of archetypes is a useful guideline for making characters, but I don't think strong IC definitions of abstract concepts are that useful once in character.

Hair colour: Matted, dirty brown-blonde.

Eye colour: Um. Glowing? Yellow? I don't have the character model to hand. Whatever she appears to have.

Height: Average.

Of the three Forsaken factions the guild represents: The Royal Apothecary Society, The Deathguard and The Deathstalkers. Which do you feel your character would fit in with best and why?

Any, and all of them. OC, the class has stealth, so putting her in with the Deathstalkers works. IC, Lyssta would identify herself as a fighter (albeit a dirty one). Casually speaking, she is an avid reader and a scribe, interested in academic research and debate.

How does your character feel about the place of the Forsaken in the Horde? And how does he/she react to other races within the Horde?

I will segue here into the concept of 'FOIP', an acronym picked up from larp and an alien concept to most WoWers. It stands for 'find out in play'. Another way to think of it would be 'I don't want to hear/tell spoilers!', or around the concept and value of 'revelation'.

A lot of the value of roleplay, to me, involves finding out about other characters. If I splurged all my character's history, motivations, thoughts and feelings, there would be nothing left for people to find out through interacting with the character, and if I were dedicated enough, I could find out all about everyone else from reading all their backgrounds on here. It would then rob me of finding out about other people's histories, and genuinely being surprised, amused or interested in hearing more. It would make me less engaged in finding out about other people. It would rob them of the opportunity to roleplay with me, telling me about themselves. And it would confuse matters when attempting to remember what you know from the OC story written up on here, and remembering what you'd heard IC from the character actually speaking.

Let me know if you want me to revisit the personal/character/history questions with detail. Alternatively, conduct these questions as part of an IC interview!

TEST OF ABILITY

"The Forsaken are evil. There are no good Forsaken."

What are good and evil? Perspectives, morals written by biased sources. The Scarlet Crusade said they were good, and everything else in Lordaeron was evil. Whose morals are we going by? Alliance, Horde? Each will compromise their morals for victory, no one can claim they are unbiased.

An unbiased framework of how to define good and evil then - the simplest of which I know would be to describe it in terms of 'for the self' and 'for others'. If you work on behalf of others, that is good: the more others you are working for, the greater the good. If you work on behalf of yourself to the detriment of others, that is evil: the more affected by your self-serving plans, the greater the evil.

The Forsaken serve the Banshee Queen. We do this, because we know that she will foster and protect us. When we risk our lives for her, we do this for all of the Forsaken. We are working on behalf of others, a lot of others: this is good. Within the context of the Horde, of which the Forsaken are a part, working for the Queen is working on behalf of a lot more people, which is even greater. And when you consider the role that the heroes of the Forsaken have had in destroying the Lich King, the Scourge, and so many of the Alliance, all of which have threatened our existence, surely you can understand that we are not evil.

Let us ignore the torture of captured enemies, as necessary to victory. Let us ignore the life-stripping plagues we brew, as merely weapons. Let us ignore the stripping away of mental deficiencies such as 'mercy' or 'pity', as refining the best qualities of our leaders and generals. Let us ignore the agonising and searing pain the Light brings to our bodies, as... as... inconvenient. The Forsaken are good.

Dark Lady watch over us all.

Accepted!
Blissful to read through, I am thoroughly impressed.
Contact either me, Hainricht or any other member of the Spine in-game for an in-game interview!