[Interest-Check] Ethereal Roleplay Community

Argent Dawn
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Introduction:

The Ethereal are one of the most popular neutral races both in general community and roleplaying community. Be it a peddlar, collector or else, they have their own unique flavor despite being called „space goblins”. As such, thanks to inspiration from Vixi, I would like to invite all of those who aspire to be or already are Ethereal roleplayers to join together in one and single community.

This isn’t of course guild advertisement but a simple call from a Ethereal-loving roleplayer to the dedicated roleplayers who might want to fulfill their long harbored desire to bring their Ethereal character to life.

Why should I want to roleplay Ethereal?

That is a good question. The Ethereal are race walking the Twisting Nether and most likely can access the Great Beyond. They are unique when it comes to their lore and history, as unlike the draenei they didn’t have to run and escape from the Legion. Further more, they even thrived under the Legion as shown by factions of ethereals dealing with demons. But below I will present the argumetns which might presuade you to consider becoming one of us.

Faction Neutral - Are you somone who’d like to engage in events of both factions without need of creating two special TRP characters? Do you like to manipulate both factions for your own personal profit. Perhaps you simply hate the Horde-Alliance dynamics and would prefer to make friendships with people of both factions? The ethereal are just for you. They are faction neutral towards the Horde and the Alliance and even provide the services for both factions.

Suitable for Every Occasion - Be it a conflict between the horde and the alliance, the walk through the city of either faction, the invasion of the evil forces. The Ethereals fit everywhere they go. They are astral travelers and well-known traders, collectors and researchers of many things and items. If you look for a non-playable race to roleplay which fits in every zone, situation and place you should consider becoming an ethereal.

Eternal Life and Anti-Child RP - If you are tired of long-lived races which are weak, unsophisticated and act childish or if you are tired of seeing child roleplayers of many races. Then look no further than for ethereal. The ethereal have no children, no child roleplayers because there is no lore about their reproduction. Unlike the undeads, they don’t have to worry about taking care of their body or their minds degrading and while they can be detached from the mortal society and interactions, they are immortal, eternal and hard to kill.

Easy Transporation - Ethereal are souls infused with enough magical energy that they become the energy lifeform. As such, the arts of teleportation, portals, dimensionalism, transportation comes to them as easy as breathing. If you need a character which can justify getting from one place to another easily or simply like teleportation ethereals are masters for you. They are even better at it than your Telemantic Nightborne.

Space Themes of Warcarft - The warcraft has the space themes going around. About the Burning Legion invasions upon thousand upon thousands of world, about the naaru and the Titan influence spreading throughout the Cosmos. About the war of the Cosmic forces itself on the very cosmic scale. If you are somone who’d like delve into the themes of warcarft space and cosmology, the ethereals are your number one safe choice. Unlike the Draenei which had to escape from the Legion, the ethereals were most likely undisburbed in their ability to travel on any planet they want or anywhere.

Creativity - This is the most appealing thing I personally find in the Ethereals. The Ethereal lore gaps and the lack of information about the planets and the Cosmos beyond Azeroth is so vast, that one can use this vastness in their roleplay. As such, as an ethereal roleplayer you are able to fill said gaps in lore. This is not the talk of headcannon. This is the talk of truth, deception and disilllusion.

Imagine that you roleplay an astral traveler which saw thousands of planets and visited many of civilizations yet undisturbed by the Legion. If the Burning Crusade Ourland and Arugs have shown anything to us, it is that the world under Legion control doesn’t equal with absolute domination of demons. As such, you can tell the people of the lost civilizations and try to sell their artifacts or their knowledge.

Do they exist in offical lore? No, not at all. But you can make them real. No Azerothian will be capable of confirming and denying whenever the civilization and their artifacts which you offer them exists or not. There were countless number of words with more specified number of thousand thousand(So over a milion) destroyed by Legion each with their civlization.

You can sell this as truth. You can sell this as lie and deception. You can be disillusioned and mad. But the fact that you try to sell Absolarn Scepter of Protection from long lost Light-worshipping world of Absolarn is yours to claim.

If you are lover of lorycrafting and worldbuilding, if you’d like your character to be most deceptive or disillusioned creature in the Cosmos, the ethereal are your sole chance to make stuff up and try to sell it for as much of gold as possible.

What kind of playstyles ethereal have to offer?

The ethereal aren’t limited by any playstyle or personality. But they are attuned to certain roleplay styles which might suit your tastes. Below I will give the most known and stereotypical roleplay styles for the Ethereal.

The Space-faring Merchant - If you love or would like to engage in a merchant/trade roleplay there is no other race in the Cosmos which can match the ingenuity and wit of Ethereal merchant. Unlike the goblins and vulpera, their buisness is of cosmic proportions. As such, you can sell items from another planets, curiosities, trinkets of various properties. Even forbidden knowledge which one couldn’t get their hands on Azeroth. You as a merchant from space can sell anything. Only imagination is your limit. The Consortium faction is most preferable for this playstyle as they are the cartel of traders, smuggles and else which have good standing relations with both the Horde and the Alliance.

The Collector - If you are somone who’d like to collect all things which exist. Then ethereal is your choice. If you enjou giving out the quets to another roleplayers where they have to find and collect something for you, that is your preferable playstyle. Be it simply because you are rich ethereal which wants to have beautiful collection of arts and creatures from all over the Cosmos or because you want to sell said collected items to fellow collectors of the space, you have to look no further. This playstyle is another side of Merchant playstyle. Therefore, it is preferable that the Collector also comes from the Consortium or the Protectorate. But any ethereal faction is well-attuned to this playstyle.

The Arcane Master - There isn’t much to say about it. Ethereal are walking powerhouses of the arcane spellcasting comparable to the Kaldorei, Draenei, Arakkoa, Gorian Ogres. If you look for otherworldy arcane master from any ethereal faction this is your preferable playstyle.

The Anti-Void Zealot - If you hate the creatures of the Void even if they are Ren’dorei. If you see your former Ethereum government and void ethereals as abomination. And if you associate yourself with the Light(Possibly) but certainly with idea of destroying the void? This is your playstyle. Be it a Stalker, Assasin or Warrior, you can chose any of your ethereal to protect the worlds from the void menace. The preferable faction for this playstyle is the Protectorate as this is military organization which is both against the Void and Ethereum.

The Technomancer - An iconic roleplay style of Ethereal. Along the Merchant it is probably the most well-known class/playstyle for which one knows Ethereal. Technomancers are masters of void storage, changing properties of item by reforging, changing shape of item by transmogs, creating technology based on arcane power source and magic. Don’t look on earth and gnomes to find advanced technology class, look for the stars and see the technomancer class which combines your favourite arcane playstyle with your tinker/technologist playstyle. Elibible for all ethereal factions.

The Scholar/Researcher - ethereals have vast access to the cosmic travel on individual scale. As such, a researcher or scholar from these regions is bound to happen. Be it research of technomancy, magic, cosmology or any other field of study. The ethereals have cosmic chances of fulfillign their research goals. They are naturally gifted with intellect and immortality from most of not all non-magical biohazard and enviorements. If you seek archiver or a scholar curious about Azeroth, this roleplay style will suit you.

The Cultist from Beyond Void - If you like the idea of the void. But you are tired with the idea of the Old Gods, why you shouldn’t reach for a race of the Stars. The Void Ethereals of either Shadowguard or Netherguard faction are the prefect choice for an ethereal and void cultist playstyle roleplayer. If you don’t like Ren’dorei and see them as inferior void creatures, then you should aim for this playstyle above all else. Only elibible for hostile Ethereal factions.

Ethereal Factions of Choice

There are plethoa of ethereal factions which you might want to join now that you are convinced about roleplaying an ethereal. Here are few of your choices which are up to date with current lore.

The Consortium - This is the most roleplay friendly ethereal faction you might want to join. They are friendly with the Alliance, the Horde, Pandaria, most likely Dalaran as well, they have stable bases of operations in capital cities of both factions so if you aim for public RP there shouldn’t be a problem. They are your default choice if you want to play as merchant, researcher, collector and be considered ‘good’ character.

The Protectorate - As Consortium ally, you probably wouldn’t have a problem with getting on Azeroth in their name. They are basically Consortium but trade is replaced with military. The rest stays the same. You also dislike/hate the Void creatures.

The Ethereum - The corrupt government servant option. If you are somone who aims for more pragmatic type of roleplay without friendliness towards the two main factions, the Ethereum is faction for you. As a member of this faction, you don’t have to worry about your reputation towards Horde and Alliance as they already hate you. On the other hand you can engage in ‘evil/antagonist’ roleplay which doesn’t require you to be corrupted by some external force which mind controls you. Your greed is your corruption.

The Shadowguard and Netherguard - These options are Ethereum but the external cosmic force does control you. This option is for those who like Void ethereals and would like to be as corrupted as ethereum with with void spin.

But how do I become ethereal in the first place?

The recommended method for becoming ethereal by me is prisming. I will contain the process in the guide below.

What you need:

  • Reflecting Prism
  • Rouge character(min lvl 60)
  • Glyph of Disguise
  • Fellow roleplayer OR multiboxing trial account
  • Optional: Flight

What you must do:

  1. Enter you rouge character
  2. Acquire Glyph of Disguise
  3. Acquire Reflecting Prisms
  4. Apply Glyph of Disguise on your Pickpocket spell
  5. Find Hostile humanoid pickpocketable ethereal mob in:
  • Blade’s Edge
  • Netherstorm
  • Mana-Tombs
  • Seat of the Triumvirate(for Void ethereal)
  1. Use pickpocket on desired mob
  2. HS or move to location of your fellow roleplayer OR trial account character
  3. Use Reflecting Prism on fellow rper/trial character
  4. (Optional): Remove prism debuff and double prism so you can have the same apperance on two characters
  5. Enjoy your ethereal roleplay

These are the basics.

Are there going to be any ethereal roleplay events?

If we will amass enough of numbers for such events, then certainly we can all come to some conclusion. For now this is the Interest check in order to determine if there is large enough demand for ethereal roleplay and ethereal roleplay community.

If you are interested in ethereal roleplay community take this discord invitation!

(https:// discord.gg /94rbzDW)

Final question to Argent Dawn

Are you interested in ethereal roleplay, Why? Why not?

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You put so much work and dedication in your posts Avaarak i salute you!

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I’ve always been fond of Ethereals. I think that the glyph/prism method is going to be especially difficult to maintain without any easy way to get back to the source - miss it just once, and it’s gone. Other than that, I like this. Very comprehensive.

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This post is very good but all these requirements are high effort.

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You should try out writing guides as your next project. These are cool reads, and offer a lot of ideas for people who are maybe looking for a hook or motivation to go with on a new character.

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Non-playable races roleplay should have high effort in mind. It is often easy to make a half-baked concept simply because you see some ‘cool-looking’ or ‘cool-themed’ race. They do need much like any race roleplayed well a research into their lore, culture, story.
Despite only few tibids of information one can find rich source of knowledge which can help to form the concept of non-playable races.
Let us stick with ethereal for example. By looking at them and their themes you will most likely come to conclusion. “Oh, they are space goblins.” while this is true, this isn’t all that there is on the surface.
As you move into deeper understanding of their lore, you learn, that many factions of ethereal are specialized.

The Ethereum is government of ethereal which might not only survive the wrath of Void Lord Piece in form of Dimensius, but also they might have been the ones responsible for it, as perhaps they wished to Ascend themselves.
Later in these tibids of lore you learn they were so driven in destruction of the Void, that their madness made them fall into the Void themselves. Not to mention that they their Nexus-King became full-blown tyrant which would remove all who stood in his way.

On the other hand you have the Protectorate which was formed by some Nexus-Prince as attempt of being what Ethereum should have been. They were created in response to tyranical and corruptive behaviours of their Government and if anything from lore indicates, they themselves became sort of techno-military dictatorship which fought literal space war.
Then you have the Consortium which literaly plays galactic or even cosmos-wide economic and stock game. I could write for hours many tibids of lore and in-depth. But high effort should be expected. As when you delve deeper into certain parts of lore, it only becomes more interesting.

So far I have no Ethereal candidates, so perhaps not much of interest there. But I was thinking about the race guides, except that there is already an Ethereal Roleplay guide, so I don’t see much point in repeating it.

Also. To ignite your interest. A fact about ethereals:
The Ethereum was apparently corrupted at least thousand or few thousand years ago.

“It has been a thousand years, maybe more, since Salhadaar began his crusade to exterminate all that would stand in his way. I can hardly believe that this is the last we’ll see of him… You have done all of us a great service, , and for that you will be rewarded” ~ https:/ /wow.gamepedia.com/Nexus-King_Salhadaar_(quest)

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Due to lack of initial interest and wish to not make same thread over again I shall repurpose this Interest Check by providing monthly facts about the ethereal.

This will hopefully spark some interest in people who seek space-faring and cosmological themes in WoW.
The lore bit of this month is:

"For a thousand years, all we have known is conflict. We have defended our people from the attacks of both void creature and ethereal alike.

Now, one of our most hated enemies lies dead - finally.

I give you the thanks of a hundred million ethereals, fleshling."
~ https://wow.gamepedia.com/Dimensius_the_All-Devouring_(quest)

The ethereal seem to be numbered in a hundred milion. However it is never stated whenever this number refers to the Protectorate Ethereals which are the questgivers or if this applies to overall population of ethereals.
If former is the, then it means that your average Ethereal Faction led by Nexus-Prince has around hundred milions of ethereals within it.

To expand further, the Ethereum government most likely still holds majority of the ethereal population as they seem to have far larger cast of sub-factions than the other Ethereal Factions. If that is the case, then we could speculate that there are bilions of ethereals furthering their goals.

However, if the ‘a hundred milion ethereals’ refers to overall ethereal population, then it is still impressive result for a race to survive under the Legion.

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Ethereals are a cool race, glad to see there’s a clear want for it in the community.

By the by, I’m not sure if it works but could you use the Magic Pet Mirror on the Ethereal Soul Trader Pet (the TCG one) to get the appearance too?

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