Character Planning for my Forsaken Hunter

I've never actually created a pair of roleplay characters with someone else, even though it's quite common. I've had offers before, but I always held back because I worried about the other person going inactive and then having that characters story go unfinished and unplayed. So when another officer in my guild and I started talking about rolling characters for Cataclysm that are siblings I had some reservations. The idea wouldn't seem to leave either of us alone though, I mean, how awesome would a Forsaken brother and sister duo be? It's uncommon for Forsaken to honour ties to family they had in life, so we thought we'd take it a step further and have them hate each other. Having a constant nemesis and rival sounds like a lot of fun to roleplay, and spits in the face of the typical family roleplay style I've seen around. We're going to have their interaction feel a lot like childish sibling augments ('my [blank] is better than your [blank]!') only due to setting and circumstance their goals and bragging are going to involve massive diseased bears turning red and enraging, plague tipped arrows, murder, mayhem and sacks of gold that are awarded for aforementioned murder.

The great thing about having their relationship be a negative one is that the characters won't be so closely intertwined that they need to have the other around for any kind of development. We can still have them quest together though, the idea being they'll see each other while they're picking up jobs from quest givers and make a competition out of it. I picture them doing the in-character equivalent of  linking DPS meters all the time and gloating. They're also going to measure their success to each other in terms of wealth, for reasons explained in their history.

I know greed is a theme that will be used primarily in Goblin characters, but I think it translates to Forsaken very well. Money could be viewed as a rare constant to them, they needed it when they were alive and still do in death. The Forsaken are characterized by bitterness and resentment, and I think money grubbing is close behind. I was inspired by Alexi Barov when I was doing the 'Barov Family Fortune' quest last night, the NPC still clings to his noble titles in Undeath, and his quotes are just fantastic:

"Bow your head in my presence, <race>. I am a noble, after all, and you are a copperless peasant. "
"A low down guttersnipe like you isn't above a little cold-blooded murder, I hope."
"<Alexi throws a large bag at you.> And keep the change, you filthy animal. "

I've been so excited for the character I've done a ridiculous amount of preparation in game, including farming the bind on equip roleplay gear pictured above. She's also got her name reserved, glyphs and professions picked out and a full of set of enchanted heirloom gear that includes both trinkets and three weapons. I already have a level eighty hunter that's been collecting dust on the blue team for months, but I'm a big fan of the class and I'm sure the new world and talents will keep things interesting for me gameplay wise. She's going to be very unoriginal in terms of professions and talents, just another beast mastery hunter that's also a dragonscale leatherworker.

Her appearance is a little more unconventional than my other characters, but not at the point where it's going to influence all of my roleplay; which is ideal for me. She'll be wearing a finely made wig of soft, blonde human hair that isn't really apparent as a hairpiece unless inspected closely. The skin around her lips will have rotten away, making it look like she's constantly smiling. She's greedy and takes great pleasure in bartering and getting the best deal, but has misinterpreted the phrase 'heart of gold'. When haggling over prices she'll open up her ribcage to reveal a solid gold heart hanging where her lungs should be in an attempt to get a better deal, or induce vomiting in the merchant.

Here's what we have for her (them) so far, story wise. Her name is going to be Lyessa, and in life her and her brother ran a very successful sign making business together. For six months out of the year one of them would run the sign shop while the other travelled. Since both of them were very concerned with the profits and neither one completely trusted the other, they agreed to hire a bookkeeper rather than tend to the numbers and records themselves. Over the years they became greedy and both began to embezzle from the business and paid off the bookkeeper they hired to fudge the numbers so their sibling wouldn't be any the wiser. The bookkeeper took the bribes and his kept his mouth shut; and before long the company was bankrupt and amassed a massive debt.

That's about as far as we've gotten in terms of their story, it's hard to go any further since I've been avoiding spoilers for Cataclysm and I don't know anything about the new starting zone for the Forsaken. I'm looking forward to writing about how they died, I just need to be patient and wait for my new lore. When I'm trying to flesh out my Forsaken characters I've found writing about their lives to be the hard part, because you always have to really consider what facets from their time alive are going to effect them as Forsaken, and to what degree (if they remember it). So the hard part is over!