It didn’t occur to her immediately, but as she fled out into the scourge infested Stratholme, it hit her. She had committed a terrible act, one that she would have to live with for the rest of her life.

Her Warhorse was tied up outside, and she rode it as fast as she could north, into Quel’thalas, back to Silvermoon.

Her horse slowed, as it wound through the trees of the Ghostlands, and stopped outside a remote little building.

“No, I don’t need to see this. Not today.” She said, tugging on the reigns, but the horse stood firm.

She looked downwards, before sighing and dismounting. “Fine, just don’t wander off.”

The small stones of the path crunched under her boots, as she made her way onto the landing and pushed the door, which was half off it’s hinges already, open.

The house was not particularly fancifully furnished, even before the scourge hit, but it was rather large.

She made her way up a small flight of stairs, and clambered up the rubble to the next floor.

The room here had a small bed on one side, and a desk at the other. She sat at the desk, looking at the picture frame that was placed face down here, and the thick layer of dust covering it.

“You’d know what to do, wouldn’t you?” She said, as she began to tear up. “You’d swear to get to the bottom of this, to get revenge, or something, right?”

She pounded the desk, and cried into her arms.

Relationship Charts, Why Bother?

To put it bluntly, you probably shouldn’t. However, if you are into RPing (or in my case, writing) they can be quite useful to help figure out what characters think of each other, and have it in a nice graphical representation that you can frame and put on your wall (although why you’d bother (with the framing) is beyond my comprehension).

Okay! But How?

The easiest way to make one is to think of a metaphorical center for the chart. Lets say, for example, it’s your main (for the non-RPers, just pick something, I don’t know/care). Put their name down somewhere in the the center of the page. Now think of as many meaningful (and that’s the important part) other characters as you think you’ll need, and write their names around the page.

You might want to organize them by some sort of criteria (eg, genetic ties, faction, gender, whatever) the main thing is that you have enough room to put the relationship between the central character and the outer characters. It doesn’t matter if the other people are sisters, brothers, comrades (with each other), the only important information is the relationship between the main character and each other node on the chart (or if you want to be even less awesome, graph).

You Know, You’ve Written Heaps Considering You Don’t Really Care About The Words.

Not really a question, but I just tend to get on a roll, other part of my personality.

Dude, You’re Wrecking The Illusion, Eh?

I hate you sometimes, you know that, me?

Hey, I’m the One Asking The Questions Here.

Really?

OH SHIT!

Ha! Anyway, if you didn’t follow the link at the top of the post (look for ‘this image’) I’ve embedded a tiny version of it below. Click it to see the big-ish sized version.

—

I walked into the bar, checking the letter that I held firmly in my hand, that I am truly in the right place. A small bar, hidden in the old part of Stormwind. Strange place to be meeting with a member of the Horde, I thought.

I walked up the stairs to the upper area, it’s tables filled with surly retired soldiers and adventures, and looked around for the Paladin. The letter said that she would be wearing black, unfortunately, that described about half of the bar’s patrons.

I was getting the evil eye from about the room, so I simply turned around and walked down the stairs. Stepping out into the small alleyway, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going, kid?” A male voice said from behind me, as the hand clamped down. “Nobody walks into our bar, and walks back out instantly, you see, because that’s sus-er-sus-”

“Suspicious?” I offered.

“Yeah! Sus-pee-sush.” I felt his grip tighten, as his other arm wound back. “Nothin’ personal kid, them the boss’s rules.”

THUD!

I was surprised when I wasn’t feeling after effects of the man’s fist on my head, and slightly less so when his grip loosened as he fell to the ground.

“Sorry about that, but you forced my hand.” A female voice said from behind me. “Not that it’s my job to look after you, but you are here on my account, so it’s only fair.”

“It’s good to see you.” I said, before she grabbed my hand and pulled me after her as she dashed down the alley and into another, and another.

When she finally let my legs catch up with me, along with my breath, I looked her over. She was wearing a cowl, along with a cloth mask over most of her face, both were black.

“So, I see you got my letter.” She said, pinching it out from my hand, where it had nearly been ripped in half. She pulled out a small ruby from inside her loose robe, and muttered a few words under her breath, throwing the letter away as it burst into flames.

“Why, here?” I asked.

“Not here, we’re going to go to my place.” She said, starting to walk towards the main road leading out of the district.

“You have a place?!” I said, running to catch up with her, before slowing down to her casual pace. “Just how long have you been here, anyway?”

“A few months now, I was here when they were still building the Argent Tournament.” She said, as we crossed the bridge to the Trade District.

I did the math in my head. “It’s been almost an entire year?” I exclaimed. “Christ, I wasn’t aware how-”

She raised a finger to silence me. “There are too many ears here, it can wait.”

We had walked straight through the middle of the trade district, past the huge number of adventurers who lined the streets between the bank and the auction house. We silently made our way across the bridges to the Mage District, and from there, across to the Park.

As we walked slowly towards her apartment, we heard a loud bell ringing from the Harbor in front of us.

“What does-”

“The Horde.” She answered, before throwing me against the wall, protecting me from being trampled by the platoon of bodies that rushed past, and started fighting on the streets.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.” She fumbled with the key in the lock, and shoved the door open, pulling me inside, and grabbing a large sword and shield that were sitting next to the door.

We moved back against the wall. “Wait for it,” she said.

“Wait for what, exact-”

Two humanoid figures flew in through the window. Before I could blink, they were both surrounded by bubbles of light, which they pointlessly fought against.

“Now.” She said, looming over the pair. “Nobody, Horde or Alliance, travels through my window and gets away with it.” She kicked the poor Alliance warrior in the face, and turned to the Blood Elf, giving her the once over. “Well, solider, get back out there, before I decide to really hurt you. I’ll deal with her.”

The human freaked out, and ran out the door.

“Now, where were we?” She said, grabbing the wrist of the elf and pulling her upstairs.

The elf, who was half dead, by all accounts, was not too happy with this, and assailed her newfound captor with an assault of the foulest Thalassian that she could muster.

“Calm down, I just had to put on a show for those bloodthirsty idiots out there.” She said to the elf. “Sit still, you’re badly wounded.” She muttered a few words, and the elf’s wounds healed slightly.

She lit a fire under the washtub, and told me to “Get the hell out”.

I took that as an open invitation to look through all of her things, to see what kind of person she was now. Her home was small, and sparsely decorated. There was a grand total of 0 interesting things to look at. At least, zero out here.

The fighting had stopped outside, the horde were pushed back. Not surprising though, as the Alliance and Horde both seemed to be quite fond of these pointless skirmishes.

I turned around at the sound of one of the stairs creaking. “How is she?” I said.

“G-good.” She smiled at me slightly. “I take it that you recognized her?”

“Of course,” I smiled back. “I take it you don’t really want to let her know about you?”

“Well, not yet. I like living here, it’s relatively peaceful.” She said.

“You, uhh, don’t say.” I cocked an eyebrow, and walked towards her. “You want me to take her back to Silvermoon?”

“I don’t think she’ll need your help.” We hugged each other. “I just feel like I need a bit more time.”

We stayed there, letting it hang there for a minute.

“Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be able to convince her to make me a portal to Dalaran.” I frowned slightly. “Come visit me soon, okay?”

She smiled, “Okay.” She waved, as I walked upstairs.

I banged on the door. “Hey, princess, you got clothes on?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” The elf said, opening the door.

“You got a portal to Dal for an old friend?” I asked.

“Perhaps, if you can afford it.” She smiled, and pushed the door open further, revealing a ready to go portal.

We walked through the portal, and found ourselves standing in the streets of Dalaran in no time at all.

“So,” she said. “I didn’t know my sister had decided to defect.”

I sighed. “She’s just going through a rough patch, Sel, no need to be mean.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyway, I’ve got places to go, so we’ll have to get together some other time.”

I sighed, and walked back to my apartment.

When I plan out my characters, I get a piece of paper, and write down 3-5 traits that they have. These can (and should) change over time, but they represent the character at the current moment.

For instance, let’s take Selite. (Oh yay.) When I sat down and did this she was level 70 – and had been ‘shaped’ a little, and she’s been ‘shaped’ since, but she’s one of my more static characters.

Selite, at 70.

• Wants to help people. This is her primary motivation.
• Wants to obtain more knowledge.
• Independent.

Now, this is much earlier, and is quite different to the current style I use to write these. But still, these give a good idea of what her motivations and wants will be at a given time. As an example of ‘evolution of character’ I’ll now show you what she’s all about at level 80.

Selite, at right now.

• Independent.
• Mercenary disposition.
• Vengeance to the Scourge.

So, Selite now is much more about killing undead, and getting payed for it. You might notice that I wrote ‘Independent’ first this time. This is what I call the ‘primary motivation’ of a character. While the other factors are a part of her, the higher up the list it is, the more it means to her. (Well, you forgot “likes things to be shiny” and “likes cats” :p)

This whole post isn’t about Sel though. (Boo.) It was inspired by her wonderful younger sister Iraia. (You’ve been hitting on my sister?)

Iraia has recently gone through Dragonblight. Now for those of you not familiar with Warcraft, Dragonblight is a big zone, filled with lots and lots of quests (over 130 of them, at least). The main quest chain in Dragonblight, however, is about the Wraithgate, which is where the forces of the Alliance and the Horde have decided to prepare for their initial assault upon the Lich King. Unfortunately, bad things happen, and they get killed by a dangerous splinter group of undead.

Then a few more quests happen. But before that last part of the quest, you have probably spent the best part of the last 3-5 levels perfecting that plague for the undead. Now, this has changed Iraia dramatically.

She used to be all about (exclusively) ‘Seeing new things’. Being responsible (at least in her eyes) for the deaths of not only a bunch of mooks, but the greatest hero the Alliance has ever know (or so she thinks) has made her quite the introverted Blood Knight (fancy way of saying ‘Paladin’ if you’re a sexy elf). (One more thing, Iraia is technically part of the Horde – not that she feels like she has any reason to hate the Alliance)

Iraia, after Wraithgate & battle of the Undercity.

• Introvert.
• Wants to help people.
• Is inclined to pacifism.

Now this has already changed in the course of the last 12.5 hours, but there’s no rule against that. I say ‘inclined’ as she is still leveling, and as such, is still a Retribution Paladin (basically she hurts things) out of necessity (and don’t say “why don’t you heal randoms”?) – but she’s changed slightly.

Iraia, after completing the quest [Mystery of the Infinite] (level 73 version).

• Wants to help people.
• Has come to grips with the fact she needs to use violence.

Now, this quest has some funky time travel bits, so most of this is due to the influence of FUTURE IRAIA! *Cue Twilight Zone music*

Anyway. I’m not sure if that helps you guys think about your characters, but it’s always nice to throw out some examples of what I’m thinking.

New post “Character Interview – Iraia” coming soonish. (I’m thinking before friday, but we will see)

The crunch of leaves can be heard underfoot, as I step into the autumnal clearing.

There she is, sitting on a tree stump, with a tired look obvious upon her face. As I enter the clearing, she looks up at me, and says softly…

So, you’re here at last, huh? I was wondering when you would get here.

I go to open my mouth, but she continues regardless.

Are you surprised to see me here? Are you that daft?

“I- well,”

You should know that I have a life of my own when you’re not looking through my eyes. You’re smarter than that.

I sigh, and step towards her, into the clearing. “Sure, but here, why here?“ A small clearing in the middle of Eversong Woods, of all the places in Azeroth, why right here?

Really? This is my home, you idiot.

She kicked up a bunch of orange leaves, which floated slowly to the ground in between us.

We stared at each other, assessing each other, for minutes.

“Anyway, how’s magic working out for you?” I asked clumsily. ‘Oh god, this is even worse than unresolved sexual tension.’ I thought.

F-fine.

She looked at me like I had asked her to stab her mother in the face, mixed with the slightest hint of concern.

And what about you, how’s whatever you’re doing going?

I smiled. “Nice to know for all of your powers of precognition aren’t all powerful.” She glared slightly, before she gave me a strange look and smiled a little, realizing it was a joke. “I’m fine, by the way.“

Good, good. Anyway… I’ve got to go. Uhh, take care of yourself, eh?

“You too.” We smiled nervously at each other, before we both walked away.

Well, I’m not sure what to think of that. Both me and Sel are amazingly shy? Perhaps it is just the whole privacy thing. We would of been better off conducting this chat somewhere more public, like in Dalaran. Perhaps next time, eh? (Perhaps)

The elf leaned on the door-frame a stern look on his face. The man they called “Twill”, named for a type of cloth he wore as an armband in his adventuring days, was tired, and tired of waiting. The human was late, a strange occurrence when you lived in Dalaran, which felt like the middle of the world, most of the time.

“Excuse me.” A woman said, as she stepped out from the bustling crowd, and stood in front of him. The elf’s eyes drifted to a pin on the woman’s mantle, in the shape of a small T shape, which he assumed was supposed to be a hammer.

“Are you her ladyship’s courier?” He asked, looking over her closely.

“Ye-yes.” There was a slight stutter in her voice.

“Hmm. Well, I’ve got her deck here.” The elf’s eyes narrowed, as he passed the eight cards wrapped in simple brown paper to the woman. “Run along then.”

The woman jumped back a foot when he slammed the door behind him. Hustling up the stairs to his studio, he made his way out to his window overlooking the Eventide.

As always, the courtyard was packed with adventurers. He was lucky, when he was younger he had lucked onto a big pile of treasure in the dungeons of Azeroth, allowing him to retire early, and set up shop as a scribe, and keeping him away from the dangers of Northrend.

Maechall sighed,  and grabbed another Darkmoon Special Reserve. It was going to be another long night, in the city that never slept.