(/ooc) Some questions for authors and lore enthusiasts alike

[DukeOccam]

<p><span >As of late I've been putting some thought into backstories for my character(s). I'm feeling like I might be getting relatively close to putting pen to paper, but there are a couple rather significant issues I need to resolve first. I've tried writing a backstory for my EQ1 character a couple of times, but I kind of lost the enthusiasm after a couple of weeks and then when I go back I am mortified at how horrible it is. So I've always ended up scrapping it. This time, however, it feels like a winner (relatively speaking).These are pretty general and conceptual questions; I'm not asking anyone to write my story for me, I swear. <img src="../images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /> I'm looking mostly for opinions, but if someone can supply actual canon information, I would really appreciate it too. I know you can get away with a lot in fanfic, but I don't want to "get away" with anything. For me to enjoy it, it needs to fit in well with established lore. That said, this is not meant only for lore gurus...for some of them I know there is no lore that can provide a definitive answer, and that's where opinions come in.Anyway, the biggest issue I have by far is about lineage. Ever since I created my character I thought of him (a Half-Elf) as the son of my EQ1 main (a High Elf). I know there's not exactly a 100% definitive ruling out there about elf lifespans, but I think according to the EQ tabletop RPG there was a mention of 750 years. This is what made me think I could "get away with it," and I tried not to think too critically about it since then. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />My dilemma is that what interested me was the dramatic potential in having a real goody-two-shoes (and admittedly somewhat two-dimensional in that regard) High Elf Paladin father a Half-Elf Assassin. Not only because of the alignment change but also because as I understood it, High Elves were probably the least likely to "mix" with other races. So lots of potential things to do with that. But on the other hand, I don't want to make a huge stretch of believability just for the sake of drama. If my character's story starts out when he is very young, that means my EQ1 guy would have to be at least 500. And even if I <em>can</em> claim 750 years, is it reasonable to expect him to be, ahem...<em>virile</em> at 500+? So what do you think? Does it make your BS alarms go off or not?The alternative would be to throw in one generation in the middle, and make the Paladin the grandfather of the Assassin. With this option the age problem is sufficiently settled for my purposes, but then it feels like the dramatic strength of the premise is weakened.Another question I had is how people feel about using the "old" version of the starting isle. This was when FP and Qeynos shared a starting isle, and people started out untrained and developed into their classes. They then made the choice between FP or Q and would go on to choose a subclass there. Also, you started the game by being rescued by  Varlos and company. This is how it was when I started at release, and I have fond memories of those times. Also again it feels like it offers more dramatic potential.I'm not totally up to speed on what happened with Darathar and that whole story (never got a chance to get my prismatic weapon before I left the game for a long time), though I know it "changed everything" somehow. Now we no longer are being fished out of the sea (necessarily), and we have our class already chosen, and basically we're already established in Norrath instead of having a loss of memory or whatever. So does anyone feel like it's wrong to use the old way? Or even just have a good explanation of what really happened?Finally, I just have a question about the "discovery" of Faydwer. Like I said before I was away from the game a long time...I left before any expansions were out and came back after TSO. So I'm not too familiar with how these expansions unfolded. Was there something preventing people from sailing to Faydwer? Was it just that the people of the Shattered Lands were still getting "settled in" after the Rending and everything and maybe just no one bothered looking before then? How did contact with Faydwer get established?That's all I can think of for now. Sorry for the massive post; bad habit. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Any input is appreciated. Thanks.</span></p>

[Zindicatt]

<p>About the age issue, I personally find it harder to use the elf lifespan to tell stories, simply because living that long is not something any of us have experienced.  It is difficult to make it real.  So in general, I give up the years, change history and ensure that the micro-story I am telling sounds credible.  What I am talking about is things like: if you live 350 years, then at what age would you be considered an adult?  150?  If you turn adult at 18 like everyone, wouldn't you have way too many relatives?  Things like that are just too foregin to consume and they become noise to the story.  There are most definitely fantastic examples of long-living people in sci-fi and fantasies.  Lord of the Rings is one.  And I personally think that that is a bit awkward.</p><p>This does not help you but it is an honest feedback.  <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I personally really love the old version of the starting point in EQII.  There are so many stories to tell.  So yeah, I would be all over it. </p><p>Sorry can't help you on the Darathar and Faydwer issues.  I was here but never really read up on the lore.</p>

[DukeOccam]

<p>Honest feedback definitely does help. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> To be honest I had wondered about the same stuff in the back of my mind. I've never known if every stage of their lives were proportional to ours but stretched out, or if some periods like adolescence and the "downhill" phase were more or less the same but the "prime" of their life was way longer. I don't know if I feel right about making them exactly the same as humans...I mean there should be *some* lengthening, but maybe there doesn't need to be as much. Maybe 3-4 generations to span that 500 years instead of just 1 or 2. It's something to think about. Thanks.While I'm at it though, I thought of another question to add to the list. Death. It seems very awkward to have someone have this big dramatic death when it's a simple matter of having someone rez them. So how do people handle it?I have some ideas about characters dying, but I don't want to be forced to come up with a way for their whole body to be destroyed every time I want to kill someone off. So what are some other ways? A time limit after which resurrection is no longer possible? That seems like the easiest to slip in, but how much time should it be?</p>

[Zindicatt]

<p>You certainly have some interesitng questions!  And I hope I have interesting answers <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I would make death a dramatic experience by making rezz a very rare possibility.  The world is simply too different a place if death is not permanent.  That's why I found the concept of incapacited muct easier to work with. </p>

[DukeOccam]

<p>Ah, thanks again for the input. I think that one may be solved...or at least solved enough for my purposes. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Unless you're actually traveling with a priest, or very close to a large urban center in which you know where priests can be found, finding one within a certain amount of time (a couple of hours maybe) is extremely unlikely. (I had already planned on ignoring most of the easy travel options we have as players, and the world will be treated as if it were much bigger.) Okay, this will work nicely. My mind is already churning out ideas. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Thanks again.</p>

[Pyra Shineflame]

<p>Given as there are people running around Norrath who had been fished out of the sea by the Far Seas Trading Company, I don't think having your character go through the "old" way would be unbelievable at all. As far as Faydwer goes, if I can remember it right, it was a matter of simply stumbling upon it. It had disappeared and no one really believed it had survived, so imagine the Far Seas shipmen's surprise when the land of the elves not only survived but did so relatively intact.</p><p>As far as death goes, given that my main character is a priest, it would be a bit unbelievable to have the "magic window of time" be a few minutes as that is what would be necessary to keep her from killing all of my dramatic tension =) I have "fatality." Ressurection is just a forceful anchoring of the soul to the body and not a heal, essentially buying time after death to repair the mortal shell. The more serious the cause of death, the longer healing takes. You can only anchor a soul so many times within a time frame, or you risk "degrading" the soul which is something everyone wants to avoid.</p><p>Mortal wounds (like a beheading or spear through the heart) are nigh impossible to heal without soul damage, so sometimes the priest has to make the choice of bringing them back damaged, or letting them go.</p><p>Cue drama, lol.</p>

[Astaer]

<p>As far as using the starting isles from a lore perspective, there seems to be little to indicate that that isn't possible.  True, in game they have somewhat changed the starting areas and made the whole being fished out of the sea thing less apparent, though it is not completely non-existant. Captain Varlos is still on his boat, escorting you to your starting city, and the whole prismatic questline is still there for all to explore and still tells the same story.</p><p>Also, with the new anniversary event, in game npc's are spreading the word of adventurers being pulled out of the sea 5 years ago, and even Lucan and Antonia seem to be making a reference to this. That sounds pretty canon to me.</p><p>There might be a difference, depending on what race you and starting city combination you have chosen. For instance, if you start as a fae in Faydwer, you have another starting position than being fished from the ocean. You are simply a fae starting near Kelethin. Same goes for arasai starting in Neriak, and Sarnak in Gorowyn (although they might have plans to change some of these current restrictions), which in turn, changes your lore perspective on how your character starts his/her adventuring life in Norrath. Basically, depending on what race and starting city you choose, you could have a wider choice of character background lore.</p><p>About the connection to Faydwer: I believe that after the rending occured, different parts of Norrath were cut off from each other for a long period of time. During the timeline of eq2, we appear to be able to rediscover the these parts as the seas connecting them tend to get more stable and calm, enabling us to take the journey there once more. Before that, seatravel would have been more limited. Also, we are rediscovering more and varied ways of travel, including the renewed spires and druid rings, although the spires were not active yet, as well as the druid rings (this all came later in the game), so we were cut off from other continents, apart from those included in the core game, for quite some time.</p>

[DukeOccam]

<p>I thought of another (two-part) question. Sorry for the bump, but I don't want to clutter this forum with ooc stuff. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>This one relates to the Isle of Refuge as well, and is most likely a matter of opinion. I know there is no housing or anything on the Isle, but naturally people have to sleep somewhere, guards and merchants and adventurers alike. So what sort of shelter do you suppose they would have? I suppose there might be some barracks for the guards, but what about everyone else?</p><p>That building where the banker is seems like it could house a few people, but I'm talking about all the refugees mainly. So what do you think? Do they all just make their own tents? Maybe there's a large barracks building for refugees as well as for guards/military? I doubt any mention is made in actual NPC dialogue, but there's got to be <em>something</em>, lore-wise.</p><p><em>Edited to add something that just occurred to me...the tradeskill area under the tower in the new starting isles is pretty huge. Maybe that could be made to suit our purposes? I'm not concerned about 100% consistency with canon here...I just want to be in the realm of believability.</em></p><p>That sort of leads into the second part of my question: how long do you think is reasonable for someone to stay on the Isle? I don't think they all have to stay there for the same amount of time, but how long do you think is pushing it? A month? A year? More? Less?</p><p>I've actually started writing the story (and it's a lot of fun), but these are a couple of important details, the latter one specifically. So I'm just curious to see what people think. Thanks, and thanks for all the input so far.</p>