Betria, my hunter, being permanently squint, had to take up a couple jobs that involved murdering people. She didn’t like those at all, and will never do that again, simply because she’s not really a “murderer”. Even though she took a lot of care to avoid getting attached to her targets, the idea of killing someone who wasn’t ready or even expecting to die still gives her nightmares. Sure, she manages to carry on while serving the army, but that’s the catch: she’s fighting alongside soldiers ready to kill and die for their people, against other people (mostly orcs) who know they’re putting their lives at risk and will kill her if she gives them the chance. And she doesn’t like talking about that, either!

Rikkard, my warlock, is a different kettle of fish. It’s been a long time (ICly) since he had to murder someone he bore no ill will towards (the usual fare for an assassin), but he’d done it more than a few times and he enjoyed pretty much every bit of it, including burning the guy’s house down afterwards. How’s that? Well, he -was- a lot more power-mad back then, and he’s always looking for a good excuse to inflict massive amounts of burning death upon things. Since those wild times of his youth, he’s calmed down a little and only annihilates things that needed to go down anyway (undead, demons, criminals/monsters attacking him…). He’s still unhinged, just a lot better at hiding it.

And here’s an interesting twist: most of those items pointed out here (except maybe #4, depending on the context) would fit -bounty hunters- just as well as assassins. They’re professional, they’re not flashy, they’re not all-powerful, they generally don’t like publicity, they need to know how and when to kill, and they have an even harder job in having to catch people alive (depending on the bounty, of course) so they can be brought to whatever justice hired them. Hell, even Jango and Boba Fett got shafted every now and then when their traps went south or their equipment malfunctioned.

It’s funny how assassins have that “wow, kickass” stereotype, yet bounty hunters are more often than not just cannon fodder to make heroes and anti-heroes look good, even though both stereotypes are in essence the same: someone who’s paid to go out and do grievous things to people they probably never even care about.

Soldiers of any era have been trained to address the stresses of combat, including compartmentalization and how to dehumanize the enemy. This allows for increased coping during battle and allows for integration later. While a good number of soldiers effectively return to society, some have difficulties. USA Today reported that 1/5 of all soldiers today are at risk for PTSD–the modern version of Shell Shock. Hell, King Ashoka had a religious conversion following the wholesale slaughter of his enemies in southern India.

Bricu’s alcoholism stems directly from his interaction at Stratholme. Jolstraer suffered terribly at Stratholme, and occasionally disappears to his farm to cope with his nightmares and disappointments.

From a personal example, there is my Grandfather, Anton, who served at Normandy. He got married before he shipped out, became first LT by virtue of surviving the disembarkment at Omaha beach and refused to talk about his war experiences for the rest of his life. He adjusted wonderfully to post-war life–but he also had a family that accepted him, a church to belong to and enough support to make the change. But he would never talk about the war and could not watch WW2 movies. He told my uncle of his nightmares and he made it very clear that he would not let a member of his family be near a gun. He sold his rifles and German war Memorablia, even though my uncles and I were extremely interested in them. That was his way of keeping us safe from the trauma he suffered. Trauma he dealt with, but suffered through nonetheless.

Some soldiers are more resilient than others–and each one sacrificed something for their country. Today’s soldiers and families get more support than any other time in history, but combat changes people. They are trained to think they are not killing people, but killing OTHER, thereby saving themselves a lot of the trauma. But it still has an effect, and with each encounter, damage is done to the psyche.

I’ll agree that he’s more killer than assassin, but I disagree that his player romanticizes it. If other players/characters are drawn to it, that’s on the heads of those other players. It’s not because he’s making it look graceful and cool and “Look how angsty I am.” (And if you’re going for the example of Mirandella’s attraction to him, you have to remember that Mira herself was one very, very messed up character from the start, and Mallek preyed on her. Mira/Mallek is a bad example. If Davien fell for Mallek (ick), that would be a different situation altogether.)

“killing a lot of people probably fucks you up.” But let’s face it, most of the people we RP in WoW have killed lots of people. We’ve killed scarlets and trolls, grimtotems and sin’dorei. We have killed people. in fact, I would venture to say that this is probably the hardest thing that we have to deal with as RPers. In this, our characters are fundamental that different from us. They deal with that constantly.

Actually, this is way off-topic and a good subject for another post entirely, but I just want to respond with this: I don’t consider every single quest that has you go out and kill someone as a canon event. Threnn doesn’t have vats of Scarlet blood on her hands. Annalea didn’t ICly kill Garrick Padfoot at level 6. She probably didn’t even kill Princess. Davien didn’t run around slaughtering farmers in Southshore. We pick and choose which quests pertain to our characters. There might be some people who hold every single quest as character-canon, but I am not one of them.

Azeroth presents us with a warrior culture, albiet an idealized one. I think it is somewhat disingeious to try and abscribe what a modern person would think of feel to this. I can see how the lone killer would be different from, say, the paid mercenary, but both of them are paid to take the lives of others.

In Azeroth, life is not any cheaper than it is now, it’s simply easier to lose. And overall, I think that is something that is lacking in a lot of the way people deal with it.

If it’s disingenuous to ascribe what a modern person would feel about killing in Azeroth because it’s a different society, then doesn’t that make all of our stories disingenuous, whether they’re about assassins or flower-pickers? If we can’t know what it was like to live in a warrior culture, then how is it that any of our stories or characters’ perceptions are valid?

Now, I think you are trying to make a moral distinction between merely killing and murdering. And that is something I think is not nearly explored as well as it could be.

I’m not trying to make moral distinctions. The word “murder” was used three times in this post, two of them in quotes from the original. The one that’s mine is used from the point of view of the victim’s relative, not the assassin.

I am going to continue to have an issue with the whole idea that merely killing people is going to screw you up.

Hence the word “probably.” And there are tons of ways that being “screwed up” can manifest. It doesn’t mean people can’t function in normal society. Maybe they have ways of dealing with it either on their own or with someone else to help them work through it. My dad tells tons of stories about his time in Vietnam. But in 30 years, I’ve never once heard him talk about combat. He won’t. He’s a functioning member of society, but he’s still dealing with the war he left almost 40 years ago.

I think we’re getting very much off-track here, though, and I’m going to ask that you hold those thoughts — I’d like to pull those parts of your comments out into a post of its own so we can explore further. The initial point I was trying to make was that how a character feels and thinks about what he does for a living should be examined, and that even if he’s completely fine with his job as an assassin, his friends might not be quite as okay with it if they find out that’s what he’s doing (assuming his friends aren’t all members of SI:7 themselves, of course.)

Actions have consequences was my point, not “killing screws you up because I say so.”

Also, for the purposes of this thread, I’d like to stick to talking about characters whose concept is “assassin” rather than “soldier” or “mercenary,” though I understand the three are going to have areas where they overlap.

@Linedan – Beltar also has an excellent backstory showing how he got to be where (and who) he is today. He’s a very well-rounded character, not defined only by his cold-blooded killing ways.

@Psynister — I vote that you come back and fill us in on it when you do!

In a world where people can be resurrected or turned into shambling zombies, life is cheap. Given that in our world kids are murdered on a daily basis by other kids, our vaunted “value of life” is not that high at all.

In regards to the mounds of things we have killed to reach level cap: Bricu has killed over 21K of undead with his bare hands. In Battlegrounds, he’s killed 1000+ horde. He’s also died 908 times. When we level, RP or PVP we define exactly what we are going to use. Leveling and questing are mechanics that we use to reach level cap. Just because we are capped does not mean our characters have killed well–and been killed–countless times.

“killing a lot of people probably fucks you up.” But let’s face it, most of the people we RP in WoW have killed lots of people. We’ve killed scarlets and trolls, grimtotems and sin’dorei. We have killed people. in fact, I would venture to say that this is probably the hardest thing that we have to deal with as RPers. In this, our characters are fundamental that different from us. They deal with that constantly.

Azeroth presents us with a warrior culture, albiet an idealized one. I think it is somewhat disingeious to try and abscribe what a modern person would think of feel to this. I can see how the lone killer would be different from, say, the paid mercenary, but both of them are paid to take the lives of others.

In Azeroth, life is not any cheaper than it is now, it’s simply easier to lose. And overall, I think that is something that is lacking in a lot of the way people deal with it.

Now, I think you are trying to make a moral distinction between merely killing and murdering. And that is something I think is not nearly explored as well as it could be.

The other contender: Warlock.

What’s worse than getting shot with arrows while you walk down the street? The answer is simple, running away from your attacker and still feeling your life draining away by an unseen force and knowing that a demon comes to suck out your soul, that’s what.

I’ve wanted to roll a Warlock. Being an assassin sounds like a cool enough concept that I could do that for an RP character. The more I think about that, the more Hunter just slides on down to #3. Rogue > Warlock > Hunter

I think I just got myself an idea.

Beltar, for example, has done work as a hunter assassin in the past, and he’d do it again if the money (and target) was right. It’s a job, same as the dozens of other various things he’s done. He doesn’t have any romantic piffle about it…he shoots some poor sod, he gets paid, he goes and has a beer at the Pig. After a century, you tend to get a bit scarred to it all, especially if you’ve got the discipline not to *let* yourself think too much about who’s in your sights.