Raff

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Raff

• Full Name: Raff
• Age: 24
• Location: Pennsylvania, USA
• MUSH Experience: I MUSHed for about three years while back in college and was a Godstaff on NeitherMUX for a bit before time constraints required us to close the site.
• OtherMU*: None currently.
• Alts: Fox, Hildegarde

• RP Prefs:
  • Anything's fine with me. I like random scenes and odd meeting circumstances.
• RP Dislikes:
  • One liners.
  • When people disappear mid-scene without explanation (Though I understand computer issues).
  • Circuitous and repetitive rp. If the scene seems to be slowing down, it's ok to end it.

About Raff

Raff is a twenty-something year old individual who lives somewhere in Pennsylvania. He enjoys his job as a zookeeper and likes being outdoors. He possesses a BA in Biology and his interests include movies, video games, reading, and writing.

Raff is quite fond of art and music and enjoys classical literature. He is especially fond of mythologies, specifically Norse mythology. He also enjoys biological texts and science fiction novels.

Currently Raff is working 2 jobs totaling 80+ hours a week. Also, his main computer was struck by lightning and he has to use a not so reliable laptop until he can afford a new one. Raff is currently looking for one good job so that he can quit his two bad ones and have enough time to return to the game. Until then, he will only appear OOC occasionally to catch up with folks.

Character Concepts

Fox Baramundi (Sandstorm)

Backstory

My characters always tend to have a tragic past for some reason, and Fox is no exception. I like having my characters' families die so that I don't have to worry about future family interactions, it also can lead to some interesting psychological issues. Past characters that I have created with dead families tended to become brooding and angsty. I decided that I didn't want another dark character and created circumstances for Fox to have a slightly more productive life.

I gave Fox all sorts of training and unnecessary skills which may or may not show up later in the game. The most extensive bit of training that he received was from the military. This chapter of Fox's life also gave me the opportunity to give him a reason to both leave Australia and have a general distrust for normal humans.

As for the romantic aspect of Fox's life, this also turned out rather tragically. So far all that has been alluded is that he at one point had a lover who is assumed to have died. Fox wears the dog-tags of that individual. I'm not really one for TS, personally. I play the game for the fun of the plot, and I'd rather play out a scene that I can post than one that takes place in the bedroom. By giving Fox a troubled past to my character's romantic life, I can simply state that he is not yet ready for another serious relationship.

Character Design

My characters almost never turn out like me, but I gave Fox quite a few elements which I find in myself. He has many similar interests to me, he dresses like me, and he even slightly looks like me. I find that it is easier for me to relate to a character that has so much in common with me. It is easier for me to decide what he would do in each situation and who he is and is not likely to associate himself with.

Finding an actual design for Fox was difficult at first. I usually try to think up an actor or actress who would play my character, but it took me a while to find the right one. I finally settled on David Beckham because of the facial expressions he uses in his photographs. I decided that it reflected Fox's personality nicely.

As for the name, I had decided on 'Fox' initially just because i am fond of that name. I also think that the character tends to act in a Fox-like sort of way...if that makes sense at all. As for the last name, I was trying to think of something that sounded Australian without being too cliche. I decided on 'Baramundi', which is just an altered spelling of 'barramundi', a fish native to Australia.

Powers

I tend to like elemental powered characters allot, though I usually tend to stick with storm or forest elementals. I decided this time to go with a desert elemental concept. I had quite a few inspirations for the sand powers, But I didn't want to copy any particular existing character directly.

Sandman

Probably the most obvious inspiration is Sandman from the Spiderman series. Because I felt that Sandman was far too powerful, and because I really wasn't too fond of Flint Marko's past, I decided not to apply for the actual character.

I like the basic powers concept of Sandman, but as I stated before, I felt he was far too powerful. As written, Sandman is capable of lifting 85 tons and can transform his body into sand. He can also change the form of his sand into glass. I had no intention of needing this much power for Fox, so I just used some of the lesser powers of sand manipulation and construct forming.

Gaara

I won't lie, one of my inspirations for some of the powers was the Anime character Gaara from Naruto. His powers are sand based, but he is unable to turn his body into sand. Some of the power ideas I borrowed from this character include the 'sand armor' and the ability to create sand through erosion.

Imhotep

Another sand manipulator was the priest Imhotep from the Mummy movies. I always thought it was a cool concept for a power, and I suppose this was also an inspiration for Fox.

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Hildegarde VonReginleif (Valkyrie)

Backstory

Most of the important events in Hilde's backstory have not actually happened yet, so I will be adding my inspirations for such things as they occur.

This character was actually the first of my concepts to not have had a tragic past. Her entire family is still alive, including her two sisters. This is my first character to ever have siblings, and I decided to use one of them as an enemy right off the bat.

I gave Hilde a privileged upbringing. She is wealthy and famous and generally well liked by the public. I wanted to give all of this to Hilde so that it could be taken away from her and she could have a 'fall from grace'. I wanted to work with a character who will go from famous to infamous and won't really be able to hide.

I had originally intended for Hilde to be a sound manipulator who used her powers to rise to fame as an opera singer, later to be found out and ostracized by society. I later nixed that idea, deciding that such a power didn't really fit who I wanted Hilde to become. I decided on super strength and added in her grand size as an interesting side mutation.

The size allowed me to work in a way for her mutation to cause a bit of a public discussion on what is and isn't normal. It also allows her to be easily spotted and recognized as a mutant, which is not something that I have not RP'd with any of my previous characters.

I look forward to how Hilde grows now that she's had her large public fall from grace.

Character Design

As I stated before, I really am quite fond of Norse mythology. I decided that I wanted a character who could exemplify the diversity of this mythology, but would somehow still seem believable within the realm of the game.

Getting my character into random viking armor was easy enough, I just gave her a musical background and cast her in an opera about vikings. In order to give Hilde the personality that I desired for her to have, I needed to give her a flaw that would cause her to have a difficult past. The fact that her strength is difficult to control seemed perhaps too obvious to me. I decided to give Hilde an extreme size that would perhaps separate her from the rest of society, making it difficult for her to socialize and perform every day activities.

As soon as i decided to make Hilde so large I decided that I wanted her to be a 'gentle giant' rather than an 'Amazon woman'. I gave her a quirky and naive personality that I find fun to rp with, and I hope is fun for other people involved as well.

As for Hilde's name, anyone familiar with Norse mythology would be able to pick out the names almost immediately. Hidegarde and Reginleif were both Valkyries. Her middle name, Fenrisulven, was one of the children of the god Loki.

Powers

Trying to decide on Hilde's powers was a difficult task for me. As I stated before, I originally intended for her to have sound manipulation as her main ability. I decided that the power did not mesh well with her personality. I later toyed with a few elemental powers, but since Fox already has an elemental ability I decided to go with something a bit different.

Valkyrie

I eventually decided on basic super strength with a few specifics. It was only after I began to research Marvel characters with super-strength abilities that I discovered the Marvel character 'Valkyrie'. This particular character possesses similar base abilities to my Valkyrie, but she also is referred to as an actual goddess and has supernatural and magical abilities, neither of which I desired. Altering the backstory of the Marvel 'Valkyrie' seemed far too daunting a task and so I decided just to stick with the one I had already written up.

I momentarily contemplated changing Hilde's codename to "Jägerin", which is German for 'Huntress', but decided against it due to the fact that the MU server that I use cannot use umlauts. Also, because this particular game has a policy against applying for god characters, I felt that it was fairly safe that no one would be applying to use the Marvel version of Valkyrie, and that the name was thus safe to use.