Hosting a Public Forsaken Roleplay Event Tomorrow

Who: My Forsaken Roleplaying Guild, The Scythe of Sylvanas.
What: We're roleplaying being quest givers and handing out free gear, bags and gold as rewards.
When: 7:00pm PST, and continuing late into the night.
Where: Deathknell, the Forsaken starting zone on Wyrmrest Accord. If you a roll a new undead character, you'll see us and loads of other people.
Why: We're not seeing much Forsaken roleplay outside of our guild on Wyrmrest these days, so we'd like to offer people the opportunity to try it out.

If you can't make it, or don't have an interest in making a character but would still like to watch I'm going to be hosting a live stream of the event here. I'll be answering questions from the chat channel during the stream, so if you've ever wanted to know anything about my guild, the blog, or Forsaken lore this is a great opportunity.

In-Character Details:

The Scythe of Sylvanas - a unit on the fringes of the Forsaken military that specializes in training and unglamorous 'odd jobs' - has decided to share some of the wealth from their coffers and offer equipment, bags and gold to those recently risen by the Val'kyr. Not wanting to appear too charitable, they have decided to give their spoils to the freshly risen in exchange for the completion of various small tasks; tasks like: having the newly risen demonstrate their abilities on the nearby training dummies, escorting members of the Scythe down steep hills, dissecting the mindless, swearing oaths to the Dark Lady, ect. This also gives the members of the Scythe the opportunity to spread a few recruitment flyers around and to keep an eye out for promising recruits.

More information after the break, hope to see you there!

Possibilities for Forsaken Death Knights

I've had Death Knights running through my head all week. We've just recruited two to my guild, and after one of them joined and got all set up, someone told him 'hey, you got approved as Death Knight. That's awesome.' I didn't realize why they were putting the inflection on the word  Death Knight right away, but soon after it hit me: that Forsaken Death Knights would be trickier than your average Orc or Human Ebon Knight.

I should note that I'm only talking about playable Death Knights, the third generation ones raised in Archeus.

So, what makes Forsaken Death Knights so different? The double dead factor. They've died and been risen in service of the Lich King twice now. The life and death cycle of a Forsaken Death Knight goes something like this:

Alive > Dead > Scourge > Free willed Forsaken > Dead again > Death Knight.

Forsaken Death Knights have a bit of a trade off. As you can see, they have a lot of potential for layering and an obvious level of depth due to their multiple lives and times serving the Lich King. If you're a sucker for long character histories and old characters than Forsaken Death Knights are perfect. The problem is that some roleplayers struggle with their personality because they're just so dead.

The Undercity and You: A History Lesson

Before I jump right into the history, I just want to say: I'm a huge advocate of taking your environment into consideration when you roleplay, especially since your location does not have to simply be a “where” it can also be a “how” and a “why”. After all, your character probably has a reason for going to the places they do, even if it's something as simple as: “I was deep in thought and my feet lead me here.” Having a reason for your character to be where they are is important for three reasons:

1. It gives you a premise for any roleplay you find. 

A Goblin in the Barrens might be picking up odd jobs, they might be there to trade, or they might be there to draw a picture of a zhevra because they find stripes beautiful. Having a reason for being where you are opens the door to more roleplay with random strangers since that type of random roleplay starts with conversation, and your reason for being where you are gives you a great place to start.

2. It tells other people you're experienced. 

Newer roleplayers tend to put their characters in certain places because they think it looks cool. However, this can sometimes leave your character seeming out of place especially in cases where there is sufficient lore to indicate that your race, faction or class would not typically be in that location. In those cases an experienced roleplayer would probably have a very good reason to be where they are. By showing your character is where they are for a reason, you're showing other people you're an experienced roleplayer and it encourages them to approach you.

3. It reminds you to interact with your environment, which adds realism to your character.

Roleplaying in WoW is (with some exceptions, I'm sure) predominantly written, and in good writing characters can be even further developed by the way they interact with their environment. For example, thanks to weather effects our Forsaken characters can seek shelter as the skies darken in Tirisfal and have our empty eye sockets fill with rain water when we look up. By knowing why your characters are where they are, it keeps you conscious of your environment and reminds us to respond to the things around us which, in turn, makes our characters feel more real.

With all that being said, there are many places in the Warcraft universe that are rife with lore and roleplay potential that are often ignored – or, at the very least, not actively engaged - by people in their roleplay. The Undercity is a prime example of such a location; it has a deep history, and is a really unique place to roleplay. You can read all about it after the break.

Part of the Reason I Love Forsaken

I roleplay almost exclusively Forsaken, but before I found my niche with them I flirted with the Alliance. I had played Horde exclusively on PvP servers since release, but I when I was looking at the character creation screen for my first RP server I found the Alliance reminded me of the Dungeons and Dragons races I was so familiar with.

The more I engaged in Alliance roleplay the more accurate that observation felt since - with it's taverns, Elves, Humans and Dwarfs - it does wind up feeling a lot like Dungeons and Dragons, or classic medieval roleplay.  The Horde - with it's Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren - feels a lot more distinctly Warcraft.

Don't take the previous statement in the wrong way.  I definitely had fun learning the ropes with my Human, Light-loving Priestess. And I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Night Elves after spending a lot of time with my Kaldorei Huntress, who was obsessed with the loss of her immortality and convinced she could feel her body dying with each breath. However, now that I've had a seven month long taste of Forsaken roleplay, I don't think I could ever go back.