How can we have an idea of immortality, if all people are mortal?
Dumping this nice quote by Mikhail Prishvin here because 1) I am an intellectual mmhyes 2) this is in my opinion a terrific introduction to the topic of writing immortality or, more accurately because all playable races in WoW are technically mortal, agelessness.
Without sinking into armchair philosophy, I think it’s fair to say that no one knows exactly how an ageless character, hundreds or thousands of years old, would behave, think or present themselves. This makes RPing an ancient Kaldorei or shaldorei, a draenei, a dragon or a very old quel’dorei particularly challenging and interesting.
Who am I to dump my thoughts on this or to write a would-be guide? Absolutely no one; I merely have an ancient Kaldorei character, that I have been developping and playing for about five years, and I am very interested in the topic. These are strictly some random player’s opinions, and constructive criticism is more than welcome.
With that in mind, here are my two cents:
What to preferably avoid in an ancient character:
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Trivial speech & slang: unless your character purposefully uses them for comedic or shock effect, someone hundreds or thousands of years old would have had the time to build a comprehensive vocabulary, navigate several classes/castes, read, learn, etc. This is not to say that anyone over a couple centuries should be an annoying shakespearian knockoff (though those can be rather hilarious when well done), but hearing a 10k years old veteran druid spew out a sudden ‘yo’ or a colloquial ‘heya’ does little for immersion and credibility.
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Under-developped backstories: before taking your ancient character to a walk, I would recommend skimming through wowpedia to determine, at least, where and when they were during certain big historical events they would have realistically lived through. Your Kaldorei, for instance, should have a few bullet points for the War of the Ancients, the War of the Satyr, the Long Vigil and the War of the Shifting Sands. What side were they on? What role did they play? What consequences did it have on them? Those are all questions some other characters might ask, and that your character should be able to answer to be credible; not to mention it will help you build their personality, as well as their affinities and grudges with other races/factions/powers.
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Excessive backstory dumping: to balance the previous point, we all want to show off how well we did our research and how cool our character is, but hijacking a conversation with 5 paragraphs of exposition about your glorious war exploits, your dead wife and your dive into the Maelstrom does nothing for you - and neither does laying everything out in your TRP, with little to no mystery left. Let the other players discover your character’s history organically, through time and interactions; you (probably) wouldn’t dump your entire life story on a stranger, why would your character?
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Excessive xenophobia or traditionalism: while it’s true that immortals would evolve slower than short-lived races, making a character that’s entirely set in their ways, uncompromising and unapologetically xenophobic, by the sheer nature of RP which is basically random encounters with a flurry of very different characters, can lead to one of two outcomes. First: bubble RP, in a small community of like-minded characters which will never interact with the rest of the server or only in an antagonistic fashion. Second: a thoroughly unpleasant and ultimately unplayable character, permanently in conflict with everyone. This can work for short-term characters designed to be antagonists, but I would wager playing them for more than a couple of nights will merely be draining for everyone involved. Your character can be traditional but benevolent, culturally close-minded but secretly curious; for example, a Priestess of Elune can begrudge the Highborne and mages in general, but their interactions should preferably be constructive, give an opportunity to explore the lore and both characters’ perspectives, lead to interesting rivalries and character arcs, rather than being so overtly hostile that it immediately shuts down the interaction with no gain for either party.
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Excessive backstory trauma and drama: while, yes, your character would have known wars, apocalypses, etc, I would disadvise adding more than one or two core traumatic events in their backstory. Why? Because ultimately, the more you play that character, the more you might realise you accidentally made them unplayable: too many horrific experiences stretched over so many years would make anyone antisocial, traumatised, bitter, wary, fearful or violent. If a very brutal backstory is inevitable lorewise (ex: you’re a Shen’dralar who’s lived through war, purges, murders, exile, more murders in Darnassus and then boom, Teldrassil), then it should be balanced with positive outlines, periods of peace, study, travels, healing. This also avoids your character being a complete downer, with nothing but depressing stories to contribute.
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Corny wisdom: that one is rather self-explanatory. Rehashing half-assed Gandalf quotes is never a good idea. Coming up with your own is very risky. Your character’s advice will be more believable if it feels both personal and grounded in a specific situation, rather than an attempt at looking Old And Wise.
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Know-It-All-ism and power-trips: If you understandably want your ancient character to be seen as wise, powerful and mysterious, you will have to earn it organically. Godemoting, bragging, inserting yourself in situations as a self-proclaimed leader will only be met with raised brows, because that demeanor is commonly interpreted as a sign of insecurity rather than authority. It’s all about balance. Is your character a scholar? Brush up on your lore, pick a specialty or two for your character, but don’t give them omniscience - just because you have access to wowpedia doesn’t mean they do. Is your character a cool warrior/Illidari/Lightforged/wyrm? Take a step back and let opportunities for brilliance come to you, rather than trampling everyone else’s moments by rushing in and hogging the spotlight. Even if it makes sense for your character, it will only take the fun out of it for the rest and ensure that you will not be invited or interacted with again.
Pointers and tips:
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Support character/quest giver type: An excellent way to circumvent the OP problem while still respecting your character’s experience is to uplift those around you, rather than trample them. For instance, my character Acheleus is an Archmage and an ancient Chronomancer; in most fighting events, even when he is the IC leader of the party, he will most often take a support role, by protecting and buffing the rest of the group. It allows other characters to take the spotlight while still establishing him as a powerful mage, which would not be the case if he was permanently on the front line waving his awesomeness at every turn.
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Nerfing: Another good way to avoid the dreaded OP problem. Your character took an arrow in the knee and it never really healed, or sustained some magical damage which impedes their casting, or has some sort of personal trauma that hinders their combat performances. Being immortal doesn’t mean being invincible: your character has been through a lot, which means they have certainly been defeated, wounded or broken down before. Use that to your advantage, to build their personality, fears and insecurities, and to put them on a level comparable to other, less ancient characters; it won’t make your character weak, only more interesting, and it will serve to show that you, the player, are reasonable and will graciously accept a nat 1 when you roll one.
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Depth: A character who lived that long can’t be sustainably played as you would a young wide-eyed student. They have seen it all, and it must translate into their day-to-day interactions one way or another - melancholy or hubris, sharp wits or reserved demeanor, vacant stares or jaded composure, you name it. This is where everyone’s personal creativity comes into play the most, and I would simply advise to make sure it doesn’t turn into sheer edge (aka - the stereotypical Illidari, invincible, hateful and boisterous, pls don’t).
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Purpose: There are many reasons to play an ancient character, love of the lore or the race, etc, and all of them (except power-tripping) are very much valid. I would nonetheless ask the question, which can be asked of any type of character: how can I enrich other people’s RP experience as well as my own? To that end, I made my own character into a teaching figure, who hosts lectures and classes; this is not for everyone, but taking an IC apprentice, becoming an instructor or an advisor serves the same purpose, solidifies your character as ancient and knowledgeable while ‘giving back’ some of that cool factor.
There is much more to discuss, since things can vary depending on the races involved, and this is just a brief take born of experience and observations. I am also aware that the topic of ancient characters is tied here to that of OP characters, and that the two can be mutually exclusive; I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts anyway, and to hopefully kickstart an interesting conversation.
Thank you for reading!
