Ready to create your character? Awesome! Now, there are several steps you'll have to go through. Some of these have to do with your character's personality and background (the most important part, for now), and others have to do with stats and system info for your character. Let's start with the basics.

1. Background
   You don't really need to have played Alundra to figure this out, since so much is different in AlundraRPG than in the actual game. What you do need to do is go read over the World and Culture page, which has a detailed overview of the setting, including a map and current events at the beginning of our story. You'll also want to check out the Game Info page for details about professions, races, religion, magic, technology etc., all of which may affect your decisions about your character. Once you've read up on all this, here are the things you'll need to decide:
   • Race. This will be fairly straight forward — you'll pretty much be human. In some rare occasions I might consider another race, but only if you have a very good reason. Check out the page on character races for more information. For the most part, all of the party will be human, with a single Elna character likely. I encourage most people to apply with human characters, but if you absolutely must have a nonhuman, I'll consider it. Just know that your chances of getting in may be greatly reduced.
   • Location. Where is your character from? There are three major countries/kingdoms in AlundraRPG, and you could be from any one of these. In addition, each of these kingdoms has a wide variety of locations, and local customs, available and common professions, religion, and general personality types and points of view tend to vary a great deal depending on where you're from. Most members of the party will probably be from Silverland, especially to start out with. Characters from the other two kingdoms could certainly be accepted, but you might have to join the story a little later on, as we'll be starting out in Silverland. If you have a very, very good reason and explanation, I might consider accepting characters from another kingdom or location that's off the map, but you'll have to discuss this with me. For more information, be sure to check out the world and culture page.
   • Profession. The third part of the critical trinity of background information is your profession. This will affect your skills and strengths, where you fit into society, your personality — a great deal, really, so it's a good idea to choose something that works for the character you have in mind. Profession will be affected by location, so keep that in mind. There are many possible professions in many different social classes, and almost all are open, but if you wish to play a noble you should consult with me before completing your character application.
   Your character background should also include your character's personal history. Do they have a dark and secret past? Is their life up till this point actually pretty boring? What about family and friends? All this stuff could be important and is also generally the most fun part of the application to write. :P Oh yes, and a quick note — religion in this world is a "make your own" sort of thing. There are a few existing traditions and beliefs you might be interested in, which you can unsurprisingly find on the religion page, but it is not compulsory for your character even to have a religion. If you do want one, you are free to make up your own traditions if you like. Make sure you check out the Game Info page for more information that will apply to your character's background.
   
2. Personality
   Your character's personality starts with their background; everyone's disposition, attitude, goals, hopes, and dreams are shaped by their experiences and their surroudings. Of course everyone also has a unique self at the center of this, but your character's background can help you come up with ideas. This will largely depend on where your character is from and what sort of profession he or she follows. Beyond that, you have a certain amount of freedom in determining your character's personality — though you'll also need to keep the tone of the game as a whole in mind! I'm open to a wide variety of character types, but you should keep in mind that while not totally angsty and depressing, AlundraRPG will be more serious than GrandiaRPG. A completely manic hyperactive character of sparkles and light might not be entirely appropriate. Of course, a good roleplayer can make anything believable, so I'm willing to consider any idea if it's laid out well enough and appears to have potential!
   
3. Personal Stats
   Don't forget to decide such basic things as age, gender, basic appearance, height and weight, profession (or lack thereof), hometown/land, race, likes and dislikes, etc. Optional things you may want to include are a character quote and a picture.
   
4. Game Stats
   This is a bit more complicated! The game system isn't entirely done yet, but the preliminary rules are drawn up and should be more than enough for you to create your character. Details can be worked out once characters are accepted and the game is about to start. For now, please check out the game system page to find out how to draw up starting stats for your character.
   
5. Nightmare Status
   This is very important! As you can see on the World and Culture page, the kingdom of Silverland is currently in dire straits. Over the last week, a strange plague of nightmare curses has been spreading throughout the land. Now, there are two major things to consider at this point.
   • Does your character have a nightmare curse?
     This is important to decide, and yes, it does have advantages and disadvantages. First of all, nightmare curses are primarily bad, but they do have bonuses too, in certain cases. Secondly, if you choose not to have a nightmare curse, you may be all right for a while...but I may decide to afflict your character with a curse during the course of the game, and you would not have a say in its nature! If you want to decide what sort of curse you have, you need to choose it when you create your character. The curse can be mild and in the early stages, but it does have to be evident. You should probably hold off on deciding details until you can discuss it with me, but your application should include whether or not you plan on designing your own curse (or if you plan on taking your chances), and what general sort of curse you are considering. Please see the nightmare curses page for more information on options and types of curses.
   • Do you want your character to die?
     This sounds like a trick question, but it isn't! One thing that characterized the original game Alundra was that about half of the characters in the story died by the end of the game, many of them after the player had come to know and love them because of their quirky personalities. AlundraRPG will be similar, in that nearly anyone is fair game to die a death, whether dramatic and drawn-out, or sudden and grisly. If you really, really don't want your character to die, please tell me! I will not randomly kill you off and kick you out of the game for no good reason — rest assured character death will only happen when it makes sense with the plot, is dramatically effective, and will not interrupt the enjoyment of the game by someone who plans to continue playing. However, if everyone tells me they don't want their characters to die, we may have a problem! Be aware that I may approach you privately with some ideas and requests as far as character death. Remember, this is part of the overall tone of the game, so please don't be surprised or offended. The end goal, as always, is for everyone to have fun, so rest assured I won't make any decisions about character death lightly!
6. Character Submission
   All right, let's review what you need to have in your application, and then you can get it all written up. When it's finished, please DCC it to me over IRC, or send it to me at arianadream@hotmail.com and then sit back and wait. ^_^ I'll most likely reply rather quickly to discuss your character with you, but you will not find out if you've made it into the game until I've stopped accepting applications and have made a final decision. I will then send a mass email to everyone who applied with the names of the chosen players. All right, now the details. When you send your application, please make sure of the following things:
   • Personal info. Your application will not be accepted without this! I need:
     1. Your name (real name or online alias, I just need to know what to call you by)
     2. A valid email address (If I can't contact you, you can't play!)
     3. Times you are available to play (I need to know this in order to schedule!)
     Your application will not be accepted without the above information. Additionally, I need to be able to contact you, and you need to be able to get online for sessions and the specified time, once decided. If you are very difficult to get a hold of, this may affect my decision on whether to accept your character! You can usually get a hold of me by going to Lunarnet and visiting the channel #alundra if email isn't the best way to chat about your character. And of course, I'm almost always found in #rpgcafe when I'm online.
   • Character info. Basics such as gender, age, appearance, etc. See above for complete list.
   • Game stats. This doesn't actually have to be that detailed for now, but it might be a good idea to decide what weapon types you're leaning toward and which stats you may wish to focus on as far as strengths and weaknesses. The rest can wait till later.
   • Personality and background. See above for details. Tell me about your character! This is the good part. Feel free to expound, but do try to keep it shorter than a novel if you can. :P
7. Curses and death. Last but not least, don't forget to tell me where you stand on nightmare curses and character death for your character! See above for more details. I will discuss this with applicants individually at more length. :)

Well, I think that about does it! So put the finishing touches on your application, and send it on over to arianadream@hotmail.com. I'm not sure when I'll make a decision about characters. I want to give everyone plenty of time to submit characters, and then I want to be able to discuss the submissions with people at length, allowing time for any changes to be made, before I make a final decision. It will also depend on when the game will actually start. I'm not sure when that will be, as my schedule is a bit crazy. I had planned on starting the game last fall, but personal matters intervened and I had to put the game on hold. I'm interested in getting it going before too long, now, but in the month of March I have a trip to California coming up, in April my choir is having our CD release concert, and in May I'm going to be a major staff member at Egil's and will have a lot to do. However, I have a deadline of getting the game going by June! And with luck it might even be sooner than that. I just want to give everyone fair warning in case it takes a while. You never know, though — GrandiaRPG started just one month after I put up game information. :P So who knows. Anyway, send in those apps!