I know I've only recently joined the div in an official capacity, but I've been lurking and reading since January and as such, have had a lot of time to think about roleplaying and to talk about it with my husband.  The husband is where this question/concept comes from.

 

Jay (the aforementioned husband) has been writing a story set in Tear about a rat-catcher's assistant who is taken in by a minor noble and put to work as Valet.  Because of his background, the character (Istaban) is quite good at moving stealthily and being sneaky.  He's a good-natured person, though, so when his noble asks him to assassinate someone he's not sure whether to obey his loyalty to the man or obey his conscience.  In the story, he ends up saving an Aes Sedai who is partially incapacitated in some way (this part hasn't been written yet, so he's still deciding how to make it work nicely) from a rat-headed trolloc.  He doesn't know it's a trolloc, he's never seen a trolloc before or even heard many stories about them, he just knows rat-man attacks and he freaks out and manages to kill the thing by sheer luck for the most part.  The Aes Sedai is grateful to him and decides he would be a valuable asset to the Tower and so takes him back to Tar Valon with her.  What her intentions are with him there are a little unclear, it would be a little unbelievable for her to bond him on the spot, especially considering his lack of weapons skill and that he is generally slight-framed and young.

 

Now, it all makes a nice little story, but the whole point of this is to have a character background that's not just the same old "Go to Tar Valon to become a hero" thing, he wanted to do something unique.  What I wanted to ask you guys about was whether there would be someone interested in/willing to either use their Aes Sedai in this story, or to play a throw-away Aes Sedai for the purpose of the story.

 

There are a couple of other points I'd need permission/advice with.  The trolloc being in Tear in the first place is something I know is generally frowned upon in character backstory, but it's kind of what the whole concept is hinged on.  In talking about it, the two of us said that if his Noble was a darkfriend of some moderate level of power or closeness to a forsaken, he could have been given the Trolloc for the specific purpose of killing this Aes Sedai in Tear, but advice working on the mechanics of this would be very much appreciated.  I'm still a little too new to the dynamics of DM to advise Jay on anything beyond generalities. 

 

The eventual goal of the story is, of course, to roleplay on DM, and he seems to prefer roleplaying among Aes Sedai.  Istaban is a very loyal person, he'd follow oaths taken to his death or to prevent another's death quite willingly.  I don't know how good a warder he would make, but a personal assistant or something along those lines would suit him very well.

 

Opinions/feedback/advice would be really appreciated with this, since my last advice to Jay was "Well, if nothing else you and post the story on the unstructured roleplay board" and that made him pout at me.  And he has an irresistibly adorable pout.

Interesting. :) Sounds like he'd be a Freelanders character then if he's not a Warder. Not sure on the Trolloc issue but I think that would be the Admins' call in conjunction with Lara and/or Jade.

 

I personally have no qualms with this, but would definitely like to talk it over with Owen, Elgee, and Lara at the very least :)

I'd like to add Ata to that list, being the CotS DL she's in charge of Trollocs ^^;

 

I'll poke her to comment if she doesn't sometime today; she's usually pretty good about making the board rounds though :)

i only check the forums i am in charge of or have char's on or otherwise is an active member of, this not including wt atm...so your in error there Raeyn, someone else poked me

 

1 try revolution, or 2 change the trolloc into a df assasin

 

because 3 you are going to have a very hard time convinsing me why a trolloc was used for this mission over a DF who would stand out a lot less, be of more natural knowledge to actualy successfull take on an AS even decapasitated. And finaly how a normal trolloc, crude and smelling, unaturaly seeming, horrifying in aperance, has made it unotised and alive through the wetlands from the bligth, let alone doing so alone without any suport of clanmates or overall direction from a fade.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers either way; I was going to poke you tomorrow if you didn't see it today (which I think I already said) - kind of yo-yo-ing here emotionally, so I'm trying to keep correspondence at a minimum until I stablise back out :)

The story itself hinges on the trolloc.  That it had a rat face, and that the character does not believe in or know to recognize it as one is the premise that moves the character into action against it.  If it had just been a darkfriend, there would be no reason for the Aes Sedai to take any interest in the character and drag him back to Tar Valon.  And if the story was set somewhere that trollocs were likely to happen, the character would have known enough about trollocs to turn tail and run at the first site of one.  The Wheel of Time series begins with trollocs showing up where trollocs should not be, it's not a new or unlikely premise. I very much understand why it's not something that is allowed with free rein, it would be abused and overused.  But because the story is meant to be the background of a character for RP, the Trolloc being in Tear would be a singular event, unlikely to impact the actual flow of the DRPSW much at all.

 

I was hoping for advice on how to make the trolloc being in Tear feasible. The Trolloc doesn't have to be alone and doesn't have to have been 'sent' after the Aes Sedai, the only story-crucial element of it is that the character comes upon a Trolloc and an Aes Sedai and the Aes Sedai isn't able to defeat the Trolloc and the character does.  That was why I wrote the post, to get help on how to make it possible within the existing guidelines.

 

If he posted the story in Revolution One then he wouldn't be able to play the character in the Div RP, which defeats the purpose.

Its almost not fesible, not on a small scale ting, as a large scale hunt yes

 

yes it happened in the books, second point though...when did it happen in the books? In conection to the maincharacters as large scale operations where the shadow had gone into the trouble of transporting not one or two, but heaps and heaps of groups through the ways, where the aim of the mission was so important, that the shadow was willing to take the death cost of transportation through the ways. The motivation was THE Dragon, not your ordinary small time lord of some house, or whatnot. That makes the difference to why and when its posible.

 

And i disagree its quite feasible to do the story somewhere the character would know what a trolloc was, the place is called the borderlands, its population is the guardians of the wetlands and are known to be quite fierce and not turn back from a figth with shadowspawn even if it leads to their sertaint death.

 

Its also more feasiable that an AS would be able to find herself in a situation up there where she could need a hand of help. Considering the OP dont need you to be fit bodily to weave, and is quite leathal it would take more then your regular 1-2 trollocs to be any danger for an AS

 

I am sorry this is not to your help, but the plot is unlogical, its original and exploring yes, but that is what we have one revolution for. I am not going to turn positive on developing a plot that would be of normaly an interdivisional plotline size, aproved by several DLs and the adms for one bio, it would not be fair on everyone else who follow the guidelines.

 

And before someone sugest OP solution to the ways, or the hindrances of normal on foot traveling, spawn can not travel through means of OP -> they unravels from the pattern if they try

 

 

Sorry about that, I didn't mean to come off as arguing with you, I was just trying to explain the situation and why he feels like the location can't be changed.  The character isn't a noble, he's a servant, and it's the character that wouldn't fight a trolloc if he knew what it was, nothing to do with his nationality.

 

But ok, if you don't see a way for it to work then I'll just tell him to post it on revolution one when he finished writing it.

its ok, i dont mind answering questions and whatnot, or explaining the reasoning behind things, its my job to think these things through *S* in most cases the guidelines are worked out with extended debate behind them, however not all have been around 10 years (i know i havent) so it never hurt to revisit them, not only do new books come along with new information...but sometimes discusions can reveal new "solutions" not thougth about before or whatnot. In this case i can not help you with finding those though, because I can not see them myself compared to the strong arguments that logicaly speeks against it.

 

Also there is no reason he can not post the story to one rev, and then modify his character within the dmpsw guidelines for RPing here as well as in one rev (with 2 slightly different life lines). There is plenty of feasible alternative solutions, and i'll be happy to help with those as i am sure other staff would. Like say using a df in the rolle, or moving the plot up to the borderlands.

I'm with Ata on this one hun. She and I talked about it before she posted her response to you and I have to agree with her on this. I love the creativity that went into it though and would be more then happy to help come up with alternatives. I RP quite a bit here and am Ata's Master of Initiates in the Congress of Shadows, and I love creating new plots! So if you need help send me a PM and we can work on it.