Forsaken Creation: Pick and Choose your Senses and Emotions

I just wanted to talk a little about emotions and senses, when it comes to the Forsaken. I've spoken before on how Forsaken roleplay is easy to pick up, but also offers a level of complexity and depth that appeals to seasoned roleplayers; and this really expands on that.

Everyone has a different approach to character creation. Some people have to plan everything out on paper beforehand, others start with a blank slate and jump right in without any solid ideas – creating the character spontaneously though organic roleplay. Many of us are somewhere in the middle. But what about when you're considering a Forsaken character?

The Forsaken are defined by the fact that they're dead and incomplete. A lot of roleplayers expand on that by taking away parts of them, physically or emotionally.

A lack of physical senses is common in Forsaken roleplay. After all, we're talking about a race of corpses that are missing jaws and eyes on their character models, who make jokes about being colour blind, and, in the starting zone, there's that guy freaking out about how his hands are different. (He's my favourite.)

A lack of emotion is common too. We have Forsaken NPCS left and right telling us that their feelings aren't the same, or that they're missing their emotions entirely. My favourite example is Dalar Dawnweaver, a former Mage of Dalaran and quest giver in the Sepulchre who asks players to kill twelve Dalaran affiliated Humans, saying the reasons he wants them dead “range from hatred to anger to betrayal” but assures us that they are all legitimate gripes.


After the player kills the humans like he requests, he says: “I thought for sure that with the death of a dozen of my most hated enemies I would feel a great burden lifted from my shoulders. Sadly, I do not feel a thing. Perhaps I am a psychopath.” He and a lot of other Forsaken NPCs help reinforce the idea that the Forsaken seem to feel or remember anger much better than other emotions.

So, no emotions, no senses, what do we do when we're making a Forsaken character? We don't want to roleplay an emotionally distant Hellen Keller. After all, our characters have to react and respond to the world around them, and that's hard if they can't see, hear, speak, or feel even the faintest of emotions.

Pick and choose!

Pick a few emotions, or a particular emotion (besides anger, which is a given) you want your character to respond well to. This could be mourning, regret, or if you're rolplaying the character with a light touch, even something like enthusiasm or excitement. Maybe looking at the story of your character, it makes a lot of sense for them to remember a particular emotion better than others because it was one they experienced often in life.

The thought of deadened emotions tends to make new roleplayers shy away from the Forsaken because they think it would be difficult, but the truth is that it's actually quite easy. One of the reasons roleplaying a Forsaken is easier than you might expect is that realistically portraying emotional responses is difficult at first, and so the detached nature of the Forsaken can actually compliment the detached view we have as players. We see our characters from a distance on the screen, and much like the Forsaken, we can't feel the wind in our characters hair, and we're not truly living out their experiences.

But what if you're an experienced roleplayer, looking to bring something challenging to your characters? Pick and choose your senses, or limbs. It's often said that roleplaying a handicapped character is very difficult and rewarding, as it means you have to be very aware of what your character can and cannot do and you have to be very clear about this when you describe their actions.

How does a Forsaken with no jaw speak? Does he vibrate his tongue against the roof of his mouth like a ventriloquist? Maybe the replacement leg they got when they came out of the grave makes them walk with a limp? If they leak thick embalming fluid then it could need to be topped off every now and then. There's a lot of possibilities with disabled Forsaken, and the beauty of it is that it allows you to play up their gruesome zombie nature without being too singular or unique.

Senses are also a way to disable your character and bring a little more challenge to roleplaying them. The lack of taste and smell are very common in Forsaken roleplay, though blindness, or a form of limited vision, are also a definite possibility.

Another great thing about being Forsaken is that if you ever tire of the quirky characteristic you've given your character then you could always go grave robbing for better fitting limbs to fix that limp they have, or a new jaw to make it easier to speak.

So don't be afraid to pick and choose your emotions and get creative with your Forsaken physiology. Doing either can simplify your character and make it easier on you if you're new, or, if you're more experienced, then it can also bring some more depth and challenge to your roleplay.