My name is Delion, and I make this magic carpet look fabulous.

Here, Delion of the Wildfire Riders shows off his Magic Carpet. Delion is a priest of Elune; however, his real calling is tailoring. In fact, one might consider Delion to be Feathermoon’s Tim Gunn. Delion owns the Finest Thread, in Stormwind, and he has the reputation for being one of the Kingdom’s most brilliant designers.

If you are lucky enough to have a character like Del in your RP group–one that knows their class and RPs brilliantly–then you know how wonderful it can be to RP with someone who has character goals that go beyond the classics tropes (vengeance, money, power, grudges). Every character, while not as awesome as Delion, can develop traits, skills and quirks that go beyond the stereotypical “Bad Ass Adventurer.”

Trade skills are a perfect way to develop these traits. For instance, Bricu became a jewelcrafter, not to make magical trinkets, but to make an engagement ring for Threnn. Ilarra Stormrunner maxed out her First Aid and has been known to describe herself as a Doctor (although, to be fair, she could also just be a bit touched). Aelflaed, in addition to being a combat medic, has now inherited a farm (one that she plans on using). Yva Darrows is a fantastic baker (just eat the fudge she made).

How do you incorporate your trade and secondary skills into your RP? Is your character famous for anything that she, or he, makes?

There is no doubt the the lore of WoW is rich, diverse and, at times, convoluted. Lore is documented in comics, RPG products, quests and web. And as rich as the Lore is, there is still room to develop one’s own lore–previously defined as Loretastic!. Sometimes, Loretastic! needs a push from an outside source…

Regular readers are probably aware that on Feathermoon, the Wildfire Riders have differentated the various human kingdoms into “North” and “South.” North typically means Lordaeron, while “the South” is anything “South o’Stromgarde.”* There are cultural differences between the various human kingdoms/principalities/duchies/baronies/townships, however they have one unifying theme: The Light. Individuals with a more thorough understanding of the Lore may have more information about the spiritual and religious practices existed before the Light, but for all intents and purposes, this line WoWWiki gives RPers a lot of wiggle room:

These early humans may have had access to divine spells through worship of the Old Gods or early cults that would become the Church of the Holy Light.

While additional Lore may narrow the wiggle room, what we know is there were a variety of religious and spiritual practices, some which were formed around Old Gods and others that became the Church of the Light. In between these two spiritual extremes is a spiritual grey area, a place where RP and Backstory can thrive.

Bricu’s backstory include a very liberal interpretation of Church’s teachings. With his history of shady deals, “missionary work” during the events of The Frozen Throne, his penchant for hanging around Old Town and inspiration drawn from Hellblazer, a more fitting word to describe Bricu’s connection to the Church would be “complicated.” Sorting this mess of beliefs has been, and continues to be, one of the joys of RPing Bricu.

Bricu has had a connection to Foxes–those clever, tricky predators–since he designed his new family crest, shortly after marrying Threnn. During a storyline where the Riders were encouraged by Aleros to find their spiritual totem animal, in order to deal with a Yva-level villain, it was a vixen that answered his offering. And at Wrathgate, when Bricu was scared stiff by Arthas as he exited Angrathar, it was seeing a Fox that helped him break free of his fear enough to run to Threnn.

When I wrote that scene–which will be posted in the future–I thought it would be a clever tie-in to Bricu’s fox connection. Right now, I have no idea what it means. Is this the example of some bleed-through to a Northern Pre-Light Tradition? Is it just a coincidence? Is this fox a manifestation of his own spirituality or something far more sinister? (/engage mustache twirl here) Bricu and Threnn spent a good chunk of RP time sussing out what it means. What they research is, of course, entirely up to the players. So what should they research? Where should they go? Who should they talk to? What does Bricu’s fox visitation mean?

So lend me your ideas. Start out by talking about your character’s spiritual beliefs–Anna’s Friday Five is a good place to start–and do not be shy about asking pointed questions about how our RP circle came to our conclusions! Give me, and Bricu, a push in an interesting direction!

*This is Bricu’s definition. Reality may differ.

I’ll be honest, we skip this issue. We let the people of our RP group decide when one of their characters are “finally dead” or just “mostly dead.” This extends to foils too. The person in control of the story determines what happened to the NPC. This is not a perfect solution by any means; however, it works for us.

How do other RP communities handle the question of death in WoW?