The benefits of a new game - Character Revisions!

[jdotmi]

I have a bunch of characters that I have been playing in various incarnations for over a decade now. Some of them I've been playing for 15 years easily. With City of Villains right around the corner, I've got the opportunity to get yet another take on and old character of mine.

So, let's delve into the world of character history, shall we?

Letalli V'Lesra, from Elven Princess to Regretful Shadowknight, and back again.
Letalli was first created as an NPC when I first tried running a game of Dungeons & Dragons. Orange box. Original. She was the beautiful elven princess who had to be rescued, but had magics of her own to protect herself. Sadly, her would-be rescuer didn't get the fairy tale ending of proposing marriage and all that jazz. Instead, she introduced him to her twin sister who, while also an elven princess, had roughly the proportions of a beached whale.

Later, I began designing my own campaign world, and she became the Empress and Liberator of the elven race. She would eventually become a demi-goddess (Lestillan), and would then be the secret head of state, ruling through "descendants" who were in reality herself. During this, I also remade her twin sister (now named Andrialan) as a kidnapping victim who had become a Dark Elf and iron fisted ruler of a rival empire (under the name Maristank). This duality between the two elven races is something I continue to keep in my campaign world, as it makes for very interesting story telling.

Letalli first showed up online in EverQuest. At the time, all of my concept characters had a dark shadow on their personalities, so she became a kidnapped High Elven baby, transformed into a Dark Elf by servants of Innoruuk. She then became a Shadowknight. Her sister also came to EverQuest, regaining her name of Andrialan and becoming a High Elf Enchanter. Their roles were now reversed, in a way, from their previous incarnations.

The next place Letalli appeared online was Dark Age of Camelot, where she became an Elven Mage. I didn't play her for long, nor did I come up with any real character history for her, yet she did exist there and it is important to keep her history intact.

Anarchy Online brought the next version of Letalli. She was a Nano-Technician who didn't get much of a story, but she was quite fun to play.

EverQuest 2 brought back the Letalli from EverQuest. The time frame was suitable that it was possible for her to still be alive. I opted to take her story down a darker route. Her sister had perished in the cataclysmic destruction of the moon Luclin. Her memories had shocked out of her, leaving her with only vague impressions of who she was. She started life retreading the path that would lead her to become a Shadowknight, but eventually fled Freeport for Qeynos in order to become a Paladin and reclaim her true heritage.

Letalli also made an appearance, without any real character history, in World of Warcraft as a Night Elf Druid. I hope to be able to return to that game to continue playing her at some point.

Lisa Stall, from crazy fire-loving Mage to really fucking scary Tremere Vampire
Lisa Stall was one of the first characters I played when my best friend (templar_rose) started running AD&D 2nd Edition. More importantly, when I FORCED him to run it. I already knew he would be a good DM, and I was right. I hope he's glad I got him that addiction. ;-)

Lisa was envisioned as a very childlike innocent character with magical powers. She was an Invoker with a penchant for Fire spells. She also liked to talk to plants and animals and skip about and hum to herself. She was the constant annoyance of Eric the Cleric (who always wondered if it was an Evil thought to want a stray tree limb to just land on her head) and was something of a younger sister to Sarina Matrilor, a character who very well could have been the primary character I played in any game. As it was, Lisa was destined to remain a major character in various D&D games I played in, and would eventually make the leap into other games. While she never had an online representation, she is the second oldest character I have continued to play extensively.

About three or four years ago, I decided to join a Vampire: The Masquerade game being run by templar_rose. I decided to take a very dark and twisted take on my old Lisa and turned her into a very cunning and ruthless member of the Tremere. She kept the childlike persona as a disguise to the outside world, but had a very determined and protective personality underneath. I partially based her on Maharet from the book version of "Queen of the Damned" by giving her a mortal family of descendants whom she kept an eye on. Her magical studies were fueled by her mortal life as a hedge witch, and she was working on a way to change the properties of her blood into her own bloodline. This is a version of her character I would definitely like to revisit.

Ruanne Paul, from Specialist Wizard in the School of Cosmotology to really short druid to ultimate kick-ass!
Ruanne Paul. Look at that name for a moment and think about where it came from. If it doesn't reach out and slap you in the face with it's subtlety, you clearly need help. I'll give you a hint. Supermodel.

Ruanne started as a joke character in a Forgotten Realms D&D game that I played Lisa in. (S)he was a riot when around, but wasn't really useful for anything.

Ruann E'Paul appeared online in EverQuest as a halfling druid. No, I don't really know how I got from a Drag Queen to a halfling. Maybe I thought they rhymed for some reason. In any case, Ruann has become a primary character identity for me online. In fact, a lot of the people who read this journal knew me as Ruann before they knew me as JD. Yes, I'm looking at the Neighborhood 99 folk. I created Ruann to join the EverQuest guild Fourth Wall. She quickly became my favorite EverQuest character and is actually the highest level character I ever had in the game. Of course, using her name as my reference name in game and on forums has led to many humorous episodes where I have to explain to people that I do indeed have a penis. Ruann was an odd cross of some good old fashioned Lisa Stall craziness and an odd dash of wisdom now and then. She was a very whimsical character, but that trait hasn't carried forward to any other game yet.

Ruann next appeared in Dark Age of Camelot as a Friar. I loved playing a Friar, and was actually one of the very early DAoC community leaders with regards to them. I didn't stick around the community for long, but nonetheless I was there.

Ruann also appeared in Anarchy Online. This is where her most recent identity really fell into place. Karyl "Ruann" Silvestrini was a Martial Artist who looked like she walked straight out of a blacksploitation flick. She was bad-ass and could kick your face in without blinking. Got her up to about level 63 or 67 before my system crashed big time and I couldn't get back in for three months. I wound up giving up the game at that point as Fourth Wall had pretty much vanished from it as well.

In City of Heroes, Ruann kept her name from Anarchy Online, but her Hero Name is "Kung Ru". I wanted to be "Kung Fu Ru", but "Fu" gets whammied by the sensor for not so hard to see reasons. ;-) She's level 43 currently and still going strong. She didn't keep the look from Anarchy Online, though. That got inherited by "Super Diva". Kung Ru has your standard issue tough-girl-on-the-streets past working for her, and she's turned out quite nice despite constant visits from Mr. NerfBat™.

In World of Warcraft, I had a small return to the whimsical Ruann of old, while keeping the kick-ass aspects of new. She became a gnome Warrior.

Now, I suppose it's only fair to mention a couple of characters who never really made the dive into multiple games. Sarina Matrilor should have, by all accounts, been a character I kept with me forever. While I've tried to make versions of her in games, none have ever stuck. She was modeled off of Red Sonja (but blond!) and was a lot of fun when I played her originally. I've just never been able to get her moving along again. Darren Sundance has made some cameos in games other than D&D, but none lasted more than a week. He was another comedic character I thought I could bring back, but he never made it.

So, now, we come to the character I'm excited about revisiting and creating a new past for with City of Villains.

Calista Matrilor/Kalleesta Nefaras, from insane cousin to dark priestess to even darker Necromancer.
Calista Matrilor was originaly designed to be a foil to Sarina, who I mentioned previously. A bitter and insane cousin who wanted nothing more than to cause suffering. She was loosely based on the character of Callisto from Xena. She was a lot of fun to play, but ultimately was fairly one-dimensional. She did get a lot of facets in a story-version of the events of that game I was writing, and eventually made quite the turn around.

When templar_rose decided to form a guild in EverQuest, Via Sanguinius, I decided to re-imagine Calista as a human priestess of Hate. She was cruel and sadistic, and carried with her the wisdom that only insanity can bring. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the name as it was in use. So, she became Kalleesta. Her surname came from a desire to have a sinister sounding name for her, and it's a name that has stuck. She was a heavy duty roleplaying character and had a great deal of story put into her, and the characters around her. The fact that she was a Human cleric of Innoruuk was fun to play with, especially when she would walk around Neriak without a care in the world.

In Dark Age of Camelot, she became slightly less evil, but still quite dark. I made her a Necromancer when they became available. I stopped playing the game shortly after this, so she never really developed into a full fledged character.

Kalleesta wouldn't appear online again until World of Warcraft. She became a Human Warlock. Dark enough to be disquieting, but not evil enough for my tastes.

The Kalleesta of old has returned with the City of Villains beta as a Necromancy Mastermind. I'm already working out a deeply disturbing character history (her zombies are named "Old Friend", "First Crush" and "Ex Husband" after all, and her higher level pets are "Favorite Uncle", "Beloved Father" and "Grandfather") and am even considering recreating Via Sanguinius for her stomping grounds. I doubt that we'd ever get the old Via Sanguinius crew back together again, but it's a nice hope in my mind.

The user icon for this post is the first online version of Kalleesta. Original EverQuest graphics and all. And, in case you're wondering, that red chainmail she's wearing is the Blood Stained Tunic. I wonder how many people remember what that is? (Why, yes, she is KOS in North Freeport, why do you ask?)

Comments

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

Yup. It's an old guild from my EverQuest days that my best friend (templar_rose) started. I was in it, kageneko was in it, dorowintersong was in it. I'm sure there were more LJ people in there, but I can't remember everyone who was. :-p