Charisty Sunwhisper [WIP]

[kinderfield]

This is a big work in progress and I'm posting it here hoping that i can get some advice on

Name: Charisty Sunwhisper
Age: Died at 118
Race: Blood Elf
Gender: Female
Class: Death Knight

Languages: Thalassian, Orcish, Basic Common

Personality: Charisty is dry and cold as are many Death Knights, around the living she finds herself awkwardly stoic, aggressive and extremely blunt. She enjoys one thing; battle, it is the only time you will see the elf who wears a nearly permanent frown, smile. Though she has been brought back into the Horde through need only, Charisty still finds herself becoming more loyal to her people and less towards the current Warchief.

Appearance: The tall and stoic elf has a matted and unkempt length of blonde hair that seems to be going a blueish grey at the ends where the life is all but gone and the hair is dead and dirty. Her blue eyes are that of any other Death Knights, framed with black circles that seem to spread out on her face and fade to a grey tint that covers her skin which is cold and showing signs of rot in the areas that can be seen underneath her bulky black armor. A scowl is almost permanently plastered on her face, only ever replaced by the cruel grin she carries when fighting. She has a long scar that trails down the left side of her face to just below her bottom lip, which occasionally seeps ichor. Charisty carries her fairly average bloodstained Runeblade at her side and often grasps it as if fighting back the urge to strike something.

Strengths: Strong Willed, Tenacious, Physically Strong, Opportunistic, Fast, Smart, Stoic

Weaknesses: Disloyal, Awkward in social situations, Stubborn, Aggressive, Still has many emotions intact

History:

By choice Charisty remembers little of her previous life and she prefers to keep it that way. Connections to life only serve to weaken and provide distractions. At the Battle of lights hope chapel Charisty was one of the few Death Knights that returned to Arthas not believing in the words of the traitor Mograine and the old paladin, not believing it was a suicide mission and that many of her brethren were just too weak for the task. Placed under the command of Orbaz Bloodbane and his host of suffering Charisty served the Lich King faithfully until his fall, however towards the end of his life and like so many scourge Charisty began to get more and more self control back. Reflecting on what Mograine had said and remembering all she had seen and experienced Charisty grew bitter towards those she served, making it easy for her to turn her back so quickly at the fall of the Lich King.

Being the opportunist she was she found there was more to be gained from reforging old alliances. Pledging loyalty to the Ebon Blade was easier then she had thought it would be, the only hard part turned out to be acting remorseful for the actions she in fact felt proud of. The Ebon Blade never fully trusted the Death Knight but she was accepted never the less which she could live with, better to be untrusted than hunted and killed. Coming to the horde around the time of Deathwing rising was another opportunistic move for the Death Knight, the horde in need of good soldiers seeing a member of the Ebon Blade accepted her with less questions then would be asked during a time of peace.

Charisty was sent with a group of Horde soldiers to the molten front to aid the Guardians of Hyjal, Seeing how the chain of command worked with the Orcs at the top then the Tauren and the rest of the Horde at the bottom Charisty grew bitter towards the current Warchief. She spent most of her time with an Blood Elf warrior who began to change her opinion of the Elves from sniveling dogs who could not defend themselves properly to perhaps a group who warranted more consideration. Most recently she was involved in Garrosh's campaign to find ancient Mogu relics and use Sha power, seeing exactly the Elves were being used as canon fodder annoyed Charisty. Garrosh treated the Horde little better than the Lich King had treated her brothers and sisters and it enraged her, she had little want to be another mindless tool of war under someone who had no love for those who followed him

Feeling no love for the Warchief that feels little more than disgust in her kind and not wanting to be another mindless cog in a war machine. Charisty has again used her opportunistic nature to pick a side to escape being killed. Seeing the Sin'dorei now as a powerful ally to have and seeing all the enemies that the Warchief has bearing down on him in Orgrimmar, Charisty has sided with the Blood Elves and Trolls in the Darkspear rebellion.

[Deleted]

Nice stuff! Charisty sounds quite imposing indeed.

You mentioned the age at which she died, but not when. I think this is a cool opportunity to make a 'key moment' in her backstory. When writing a novel or something it's good to have rich full character backgrounds that are a nuanced mix of varyingly important things. For RP, however, I find it *much* better to go for the slightly less realistic but very handy concept of several 'key moments' that most impacted and define the character. It's easier to remember and RP on the fly whilst keeping your characterisation consistent. That's just my method, though, not like the authoratative best way.

Anyhow, the manner, place, time, and circumstances of an undead character's death I think makes for a great 'moment'; the particulars and reaction to which can serve to really define who your character is, and how she works.

If I were to form a criticism it's one that is more attached to your subject matter, death knights, than your approach- as is often the case with DKs, it's hard to escape the grim, dark, stoic, dispassionate stereotype. Undeath is a joyless thing after all. This makes it extraordinarily hard to build strong, memorable DK characters IMO. Not impossible, though- the trick, I think, is with contradiction. I love the little hint you dropped of exactly this kind of contradiction- that she is joyful in battle. My recommendation is that you build on that. Macro up some /happy, /love, /bounce, /cheer, /chuckle, /smile, emotes with cooldown abilities you tend not to spam (unfortunately you can't put modifiers on emotes, so if it's a button you press often, the emote will be spammed). Maybe think about some rationale- perhaps pain, suffering, blood, or death temporarily lifts the fog of undeath and misery from her mind, and she is in a funny way, her happy old self again (albeit in something of a daze/wilfully unaware of the carnage she is inflicting); like maybe she considers bloody combat to be 'playing' and gets a little sad when her playmates 'sleep'. Not sure, maybe that's too juvenile or crazy.

But anyhow, in principle, contradictions are good in a character, I think. An honest paladin who can at times be a little greedy. A cold DK who is bright as a sunflower when in combat. A brutish orc who actually enjoys elven fineries.


You mentioned she was disloyal, and I can see she was certainly disloyal to the Ebon Blade and the Lich King. What about the sin'dorei? I'm guessing sin'dorei aren't generally too fond of her, as a death knight. How does she react to that? Is it just racial pride that is behind her dislike of Garrosh's methods? Because she seemed ok with the LK's Bloodbanes similarly ruthless disregard for his subordinates.

On a final note; is she 'san'layn' (darkfallen, vampiric undead belves)- or a regular DK who happens to have been an elf? I'm not 100% but I think not all belf DKs are san'layn, and vice versa.