Then vs. now

[Vaxir-argent-dawn (Vaxir)]

I love this topic.

How did one (or more) of your characters start and how are they these days? Were they, say, happy at first and you mauled their brains to death via RP and now they’re depressed? Or did you start one concept on them and change it to another over time? This topic goes for OOC and IC!

I love (and hate and cringe) thinking of Vaxir, for instance. She started as a “normal” Night elf DK when I was brand new to RP and had only been on the game for a year. Now, I heard of San’layn and was like oh wow, what a great concept! But hmm, I’m a Night elf! How about a half-breed NElf BElf?! Yea, that’s how clueless I was. Anyway, that lasted like a few weeks until I changed her to a (proper) San’layn. At one point she was supposed to be a constructed one, but that concept also got removed pretty fast. Then, over the years, she went from kinda chatty and attacking everything to sort of passive half-mute. These days? Yea, still doesn’t like talking and is 100% San’layn, but at least she’s not a half-night elf… Construct… Something…

So, go on. Tell us about your character(s) and their IC and OOC changes.

[Vixí-argent-dawn (Vixí)]

Vixi has had a few changes! Originally, I think I played her up more like typical gnomes. Very bubbly and chatty. But I then later settled more on a proper concept for her, and leaned into the aspects of fel and fel corruption and thought how it would potentially come across on a gnome.

So what I ended up settling on is that for Vixi, her change has shown in that she is more serious. Less jokes, less bubbly and cheerful. Not exactly grim, just very clinical and work focused.

OOC wise, she like many of my characters have changed race and characters entirely over the years!

I also think many of my characters have ended up for the better, as when I was new to roleplay I tended to either RP them a bit more based off myself or directly of characters from other medias that I liked, where as now I feel more confident and get more enjoyment in making and writing up characters that come into themselves more.

[Yarì-argent-dawn]

Yari originally had both eyes.

She started as a summoner type mage, classical arcane stuff, Kirin Tor schools of magic even!
Now she is pretty close to the concept of a leywalker.

Playing her is kind of “on-and-off” for me though. She is my oldest character by far, which naturally leads to one getting tired sometimes. But in the end playing something else always feels weird to me.

[Zappfuse-argent-dawn]

Zuuka changed a lot since her first concept as a character was made.

OOC-side, she was initially a tribal-leaning, fel using sultry bog witch type warlock, with horns from prolonged fel usage, a big ol’ scythe and a lot of flaming, floating familiars to harass people with. (Which is a concept I did reintroduce as an alt.)
Now, she’s a surfer-biker girl hybrid who enjoys brawling and shooting / tinkering with guns.

IC side, she begun as a very emotionally distant character who just full-on hid behind the “chill surfer girl” mask. She rarely got physical and preferred to be alone in the back lines to snipe people.
Being among found family, she opened up a lot more about handling her emotions normally instead of suppressing them, grew a fondness of more close quarters fighting, and even found herself a chill partner who’s teaching her about the ways of shamanism.
She also used to be a very dime-a-dozen military goblin before, which changed after a lot of sordid run-ins with traitors and their ilk - now she’s much more of a freespirited, “where the wind blows” type person.

It’s kinda bizarre seeing old sketches I drew of her when I first thought of the character, and where she is now. In a good way, of course.

[Desartin-argent-dawn (Desartin)]

Des here began as an Argent Crusader when I brought him to Argent Dawn during MoP , even if Hargorin was my main then. He has remained like that until BfA came and Teldrassil came under attack. Since the Crusade did not try and intervene to stop what was essentially Female-Arthas-With-Pointy-Ears plus Horde threatening his people -again-, he first took part in the Drums of War campaign under a hidden identity for a while.

But when Teldrassil burned and not just the Kaldorei, but also many Gilneans, perished, he decided it was time to face the Horde with open visor, as they say. And so it was with a heavy heart that he departed the Argent Crusade and returned to the Alliance, where he has remained to this day, despite offers for him to return to the Argents ( actually IC by players!), and despite always having kept his respect for them. I wanted that departure to have actual weight and meaning, and not be one of those players who flip-flop between neutral and faction when it suits them, so I presume it would take something equally bad for him to consider leaving the Alliance again.

Personally he’s also undergone some change. After becoming a widower twice ( the people stopped playing), he was not sure if he would ever settle down again. But eventually he did, and he’s now getting to terms with becoming an actual family-man.

Personality-wise, I would not say he changed much, save for becoming less idealistic. The Fourth War taught him that.

Edit: I actually forgot something important. During most of his rp career, Des has always been an optimist. He still is. But, as he is growing older, he is also realising that so far, no paladin has ever died in his bed ( Shamelessly paraphrasing from Witcher here), and that despite all his attempts to the contrary, that is still very much a fate he might share aswell if all goes bad.

And with now starting a family of his own, he is starting to become more aware of his own mortality, and while he will still fight and try and save others, he is definetly becoming more careful and calculated. And while I, OOC, know that Des will only die if I will it so, I do try my best to rp him without that knowledge.

[Crystie-argent-dawn]

Crystie changed a bit. In appearance surprisingly little for a character I made back in Warlords of Draenor. Originally I made her as a goblin jeweler who dabbled in “shamanism” and by shamanism i mean using faulty appliances to mimic actual shaman powers like causing wind and lightning. she had little going for her save she once had someone playing her sister and brother.

now shes actually got some shaman training under her belt but she remains the furthest thing from a shaman. shes moved from jewels to cars and bikes, finding more joy and fulfillment in putting an engine back together than she did putting a ring together. complete greaser now.

[Lintían-argent-dawn]

Lintian started in late WoD as a non-notable civilian, a hunter by trade who felt restricted by the confines of night elf society, fancying herself a scholar of kaldorei history. She had no real combat experience, and her first wake-up calls came during the botani invasion of Ashenvale and on the Frozen Heart campaign, both in late WoD, when she joined as a tagalong chronicler but was forced to fight, having two near-death experiences.

Then came Legion, where she worked for the nightborne resistance, an episode that influenced her neutrality in the Alliance-Horde conflict come BfA. But by far the most important event that affected her was, of course, the War of Thorns. All her hopes for peaceful coexistence with the Horde were crushed when Sylvanas attacked Astranaar, and she barely escaped. She boarded a ship to Pandaria and never saw Teldrassil burn.

BfA was a pivotal time for two reasons. First, it saw her ideals tested; despite the war, she did not compromise her pacifism, coming to blows with fellow night elves over it. Second, it was a time when she began learning arcane magic, first in Pandaria as part of an adventuring order, and moving to Dalaran at the onset of Shadowlands.

After the timeskip, the Dragon Isles expedition and eventually the battle for Amirdrassil in the Emerald Dream saw her newfound arcane skills tested. Today, she is a capable mage who has earned some respect for participating in the defense of Amirdrassil, and lives quietly and happily in Bel’ameth, with her traumas over past wars and calamities slowly healing.

[Cathode-argent-dawn (Cathode)]

I made Cathy with a one sentence concept in mind. “Veteran who works at the tram,” then it ended it spiralling into a deeper conspiracy.

Cathode is a former Seventh Legion commando that fought in the Northrend conflict during WotLK. The experience shook her up and she had difficulty becoming accustomed to civilian life working at the Deeprun Tram after that.

The character used to have trouble articulating their feelings, avoided conflict at all costs and kept people at arm’s length. She also never told anybody what her old job was since she spent some time in jail for dealing frontier justice on her scourge-corrupted commanding officer without sufficient proof, but they couldn’t 100% prove it was her, either. She lived as a black sheep for a while after her release.

Now Cathy’s arc has ended and she has finally been able to clear her name, now she can feel openly proud of her military service. She’s much more confident and has been able to heal, so she has more comfortably settled into civilian life. Even the mention of Northrend no longer makes her as uncomfortable as it once did.

Things aren’t perfect, but they’ve improved a lot!

[Mithcha-argent-dawn (Mithcha)]

Mith’cha started as a lost Troll joining a raptor cult, under a different name. I think late tbc, but it could’ve been early wrath, I can never remember specfically. That name then got incoperated into being her real name with ‘Mith’cha’ as a work alias when she became a more mercenry character.

Her accent got steadily worse over time as she lost it due to cultural assimilation within the wider horde but kept trying to put it on, conviently and in no way related cough this allowed her to be understood by players who may have had difficulty reading her accent. The I’n I stayed consistant though. I’m sad my current Troll doesn’t do that but it was her thing and she is quite, quite dead.

She grew over time, and several expansions, from a die hard Troll supremicist who joined a few different groups trying to rebuild ‘the empire’ into a very complicated character who was constantly in an internal struggle with her own beliefs and views on what Trolls should be, how she was raised etc vs the growth of, frankly, loyalty and love she had for the Horde and what it had come to represent to her over time as well as the group she ultimately landed with for the past few years.

She would carry skulls, push for death with impunity and perform dark voodoo, then go entirely against type and order Blood Elf wine. It always amused me OOC that people assumed she was into frog venom. Indeed her best friend for a while was a Shal’dorie.

She died due to her own ego. Run through by a Nuribian instead of retreating. Old injuries (and bad rolls) sealing her fate.
Overall I’m happy with how she went, she died staying try to her core belief in Troll supremacy that never really went away fully.

My current Troll, because of course it’s a Troll, has only started her journey and tbh due to time and lack of motivation I’ve not really kicked it off yet. She’s had like… two IC apperances over 3 months. Will see where she goes, but I doubt she’ll have as long a journey.

[Jazthi-argent-dawn]

Jaz’thi has had a very wild ride. I started him in late Legion as a side-character to my main, a Drakkari DK. He was just a healer in my DK’s former guerrilla squad (whom I used as bosses in the first Return of the Damned campaign in 2018, except for Jaz’thi himself, who was the only one not to get raised as a DK). I wanted to play a shaman and already had him lying about, so I just rolled with him.

At some point very soon, I added the idea that he’s a sickly, deformed Ice Troll, all skin and bones and not at all the hulking ice troll the other Drakkari were. His backstory was basically one big sob story about being bullied and unvalued by the other Drakkari, sometimes I cringe skimming over the short stories I wrote about him. It was just a bit too much.

He also gradually went from a just a decently-skilled Shaman to a water-weaving prodigy, because I needed to retroactively justify my Drakkari getting raised as a DK instead of a ghoul and Jaz’thi got kind of dragged along, but it reinforced the idea that he tried to prove himself as a useful and powerful soldier, like the others in his squad.

I came up with the idea that he lost faith in the Loa when he witnessed the Drakkari Prophets killing them, and lost all power over water-weaving as a result. His entire arc for the next several years basically became this bitter, traumatized war-veteran and childhood prodigy facing absolute uselessness and powerlessness and trying to find a new place in the world for himself.

He was contacted by a couple curious elemental spirits willing to give him a chance, but because he had no shamans around him, Jaz’thi had to learn on his own, while testing the patience of his guildmates to the limits. He got addicted to dreamfoil at one point iirc.

With the start of Shadowlands, we had a campaign where Zul’gurub got invaded by the Scourge, and that was the breaking point for Jaz’thi. He broke his oath to the guild and left. It was a fork in the road; finally let go of the past, let his old self literally die, and embrace the path of the elements? Or go back to the past he never could forget, to be who he’d always been; the tortured Drakkari soldier?

He apparently chose the latter. He was found drowned in a bog in Zul’Drak, and got raised as a Death Knight of the Scourge. The very thing he’d fought so hard against. Only, it turns out, he’s kind of a fan. No more sleep? No more endless nightmares? Incredible power at his fingertips, with no caveats, no deals, no fickle spirits dictating if and how he can use it? No more caring of others’ opinions of him? What a WIN!

Ironicaly, I think Jaz’thi is happier now as a mummified corpse than he ever was in life.

[Atahalni-argent-dawn (Atahalni)]

Edit: Sorry for the wall of text, I went down a memory lane…

Atahalni has had a very interesting arc over the years. He started off as a character concept inspired by Matowa- A horde aligned but a bit sketchy Grimtotem tauren, in late Legion. He was very much pro Horde aligned at the start of the Drums of War campaign.

However, this is also the time when his rift with the Horde started to form, because of the shadowy powers he wielded and his mocking attitude toward honor and more traditional elements of the faction. It is at this point in time that he caught the attention of the Grim Gest and Baron Morsteth, who recruited him during their stay in New Agamand.

Him joining the Gest definitely brought out the worst in him (but the Rp was great!). He got into an assortment of schisms, fights and even witch hunts with the Horde faction, while the Gest drew him further and further in their ranks, alienating him further from the Horde.

For concrete examples, he ruined a tauren moot by stirring the pot against a night elf in attendance and then gave chase to a tauren sunwalker that had killed a Hand of Conquest member guarding him during his imprisonment, throwing a blight bomb at them in the Crossroads inn. This got interpreted at the time as him having “blighted the crossroads” (he used the “detoxified blight grenade” engineering item from BFA that deals 10k poison damage in a small circle on the ground), which got him arrested and set into penal duty for the Gest by the very same people he had tried to help.

Later on he also stirred trouble in Zuldazar with Rakhuul’s lot (First Empire?) and later Painted shields, and there was also a misunderstanding about him having disrupted or enslaved their dead (he didn’t), but he got the blame and punishment in the form of a beating for it.

He also got at some point of BFA chased out of Orgrimmar and attacked in Fenris, because he had mind controlled a grunt to let him go out of imprisonment. He was considered kill on sight up until the event where Sylvanas abandoned the Horde, after which he briefly returned to Orgrimmar under amnesty with the rest of legion, got into a fight with Bearan Earthshatter over an old feud they had had, lost and got imprisoned again, and freed by the new leader of the Saurfang legion after the previous one had to resign due to loyalties toward Sylvanas. This was an attempt at reparations that would not last.

While all of this is going on, understandably he got more and more bitter and resentful at the Horde, and Gest only helped to fuel that animosity further, as they served an old one called Xa’sugoth it turned out, and operated in the background sabotaging the more peaceful elements of the Horde by murdering them. These operations were called “Gargoyle” as a code.

Atahalni was happy to do these things, as it allowed him to get back at the system that had wrong him, and the nature of at least his relationship with their patron was very much transactional in nature.

You can then understand how absolutely gleeful he was when the Loyalists compromising of The Rotgarde and The Grim Gest joined in an open revolt against the Horde, siding with Sylvanas. He finally got to pay back, with interest, at everyone and all who had wronged him.

It was also around this time that the Grim Gest ran an event where they fought an enemy called the Last Light, who had sent an angel to slay the Gest’s patron god. Atahalni quite literally gave his life to save their patron, and as a reward, Xa’sugoth brought him back to life with a new body fit for a champion, and gave him back his horns.

Several campaigns followed during late BFA and early SL where the Gest and Rotgarde went about their business, occasionally bumping heads with both the Alliance and the Horde, but nothing notable happened for a while.

At the start of Shadowlands he gained a lot of infamy within the Horde, the most notable one being the Gloomspire campaign where he managed to trick the Horde into releasing an old one of Yogg Saron from it’s imprisonment, as well as following up with a smear campaign on the Ebon Onslaught, making the Horde briefly treat them with Hostility, as well as causing some sedition in the ranks of the Horde by spreading leaflets about their failures and supposed affiliations some of them (Eternal Sisterhood) had with the loyalists. For his efforts, Atahalni rose in the ranks of the loyalists and cemented his infamy toward his enemies. He was forever known as the “Deceiver of Gloomspire” henceforth.

He also managed to capture Gruggosh in the following Shadows of Alterac campaign, which gave them some good leverage against the Horde for the near future. Unfortunately, Atahalni miscalculated the loyalties of a Lich they had been working with since Gloomspire, and he betrayed them at the end of the campaign. He blamed himself for not seeing it coming even with all the evidence he had, but the other loyalists supported him through it all.

This was also the time when he started to grow some very deep bonds with the other loyalists. Agonal, Melany, Ulwa, Tarok, and more. But above that, Megnarosh and later on Bearan Brokensun (the one he had fought and lost to earlier), who he grew such a deep and complex brotherhood with that he started to treat them as his siblings. Their well being started to overshadow even his greater goals of shrouding the entire world in darkness or getting back at the Horde. For Bearan specifically, Atahalni went out of his way to help him with his personal quests and plans, which made their bond very strong.

Bearan got captured by the Horde and Ebon Onslaught later, but they couldn’t execute him because Atahalni had stored a portion of his spirit to a dagger. This meant that if they killed him, he could be revived by the loyalists. Due to this, they imprisoned him instead.

With the leverage on the Stone Guard (including a worm Morsteth planted in his ear), Bearan got “released” from his imprisonment, and Atahalni headed out to rescue him. Together, they made their way back to Lordaeron and the rest of the loyalists.

During the voyage back to Lordaeron, Atahalni also encountered a pandaren woman called Pan who he grew what one could describe as feelings for, and who also made him profoundly question his goals in life: On one hand, he wanted to enact revenge on all of existence for all the suffering he had endured, but on the other hand, the companionship of his friends and allies is what made him truly happy.

They got back to the loyalists, safe and sound and Atahalni parted ways with Pan. She asked him to come and see her some time in the future.

All in all, things looked great for him. He even tutored a pandaren pupil in the Ronin called Wu Sheng Bu, hoping to leave some sort of legacy behind. But like with all good things, they must come to an end.

After one more very successful campaign before the winters veil where the loyalists managed to get revenge on Nhazzur, the Lich that had double crossed them, things started to go sour. Slowly but surely.

First, Atahalni actually kept his word and took a detour holiday to Pandaria to meet Pan. I have a whole story about it, but long story short: A blooming love triangle goes sour, he gets almost murdered by some Shado-pan, messes everything up and when he has a chance to redeem his actions by actually helping Pan, he abandons her as a distraction from his goals with the Loyalists, ultimately causing her to die. It haunts him to this date, and is probably the only thing he’s genuinely sorry about.

Atahalni had confessed this situation to Captain Vitsaus from the Ardent Pursuit. The two had had a very complex “enemies on the surface but neutral/mutual respect on the inside”, which continues to this date. Vitsaus had told him since the En’kilah campaign that Atahalni had the capability to do good and that he wasn’t evil, he just chose to be. And he could choose not to be.

These all pulled on Atahalni’s already torn consciousness, and what was to follow would do it even more to him.

Late Shadowlands, with Sylvanas’ redemption arc coming into play, started the inevitable division of the Loyalists. The Rotgarde specifically wanted to negotiate a truce and/or amnesty for the Loyalists in the aftermath, but were told in no uncertain terms that while there were very strict but still plausible ways for them to get back into the fold, the Grim Gest were void cultists and would not be part of this deal.

Nevertheless, as talks of these peace negotiations continued, Atahalni started to see the writing on the wall that the Garde might soon be their enemies, and that their brotherhood and good life as antagonists to the rest of the world might soon be over.

Like the possessive monster that he is, Atahalni devised a plan to frame the Loyalists and by proxy the Rotgarde as sabotaging the peace talks by murdering Bearan’s last living son, Tenzan with a horrible void ritual. He did this against the orders of both Melany and Morsteth, knowing it would earn him a punishment, but it worked. The peace negotiations ended and things seemed fine…

… Except they weren’t. The Gest’s patron, Xa’sugoth, started to demand more of her followers. Atahalni had to watch many of his companions like Valynria, Xotrios, Koiffen and the others being turned to little more than the puppets of their god. He initially tried to sway them from this path, but was ultimately unsuccessful. If anything, his non-worshipping ways very quickly turned to “you will serve, or else…” from the guild.

The beginning of the end started with the death of Megnarosh at the hands of Gruggosh, something Atahalni to this date vows to avenge. Things were starting to fall apart for the loyalists.

But there was a small glimpse of light for him. Or so it seemed. During a campaign to the Hellfire peninsula, the loyalists initially fought together against the Horde and the Alliance, and Atahalni even managed to murder HoC’s officer, Garl’tok Rotgut, with a curse that he would later use to turn him into a void aberration and deny him a peaceful rest during a funeral session at the end of the said campaign.

…Only to have Melany Ashemere sacrifice her own head as a deal to the Horde, to usher the Rotgarde under the red banner once more. Worse, after the said campaign, she got resurrected back in this eldritch ritual that forever bound her to the Gest. So just like with Pan, Atahalni had managed to get one of his best friends killed due to his own selfishness, and now bound to a sinister god.

The Gest was now well and truly alone, and it showed as further tightening of the grip on the members. Absolute loyalty and following of orders and obedience to Xa’sugoth was expected, and it didn’t sit right with Atahalni. During a raid to Hearthglen, one of the officers, Tyrinar, got the Gest in a very dicey situation with the Holy Light that nearly killed Melany and severely injured their lot, when they were trying to heist some mirrors for a ritual. When Atahalni rebuked the said action and saw he didn’t care, he beat Tyrinar up.

Later on he was beaten up and ganged up pn by the very same companions he had rebuked Tyrinar for. Some of them like Blinxsi only did it out of orders, but others gleefully followed the orders. This was the last nail in the coffin and he decided that he needed a way out- Even if he could not save the rest.

In the last campaign he attended with the Gest in Ashenvale, in their hunt for an entity known as the Starchild infinitus (a void entity), he devised a plan to break free. It wasn’t as simple as just walking away: He still carried the power Xasu’goth had given him in the form of his body. So long as he had that, he was bound to her. With the help of Vitsaus from the Ardent pursuit, Atahalni prepared a ritual dagger to sever the boon from himself. He would rather be a cripple than a slave.

In the middle of a fight against some Satyr that were involved in the Infinitus plotline, Atahalni fled through the chaos of the battle, never to be seen by his companions again, or most others for that matter.

He severed his horns using the dagger Vitsaus had left buried for him, thus becoming a cripple once more, but freeing him from her influence. And he fled into the wilderness.

This wasn’t the end to his troubles, though. Back to being a withered cripple, he knew he would not last long in the world in the literal sense. Eventually, he would die of his affliction, if he didn’t find a way to get his perfect body back.

He went back to his mentor Taru Grimtotem who taught him how to use Grimtotem blood magic to restore his body. However, the said spell requires him to sacrifice somebody that trusts him and more importantly he cares about. The raw feeling of betrayal is what he needs. Alchemy was the second obvious solution, so he began to feverishly research transmutation and mixology.

To aid in his quest, he first joined the Cursekeeper Association and later the Bloodsong, hoping to use one of them to either complete his ritual by gaining their trust, or get access to alchemical resources to fix himself. But in his quest for a cure, he also found himself kindling new friendships, putting him in conflict with treating them as sacrificial lambs instead of friends.

He also went to Vitsaus once more for advice, who once more advised him that he can choose his own path and is not bound by his previous choices.

And that is more or less where he is now. Still crippled and having hidden under a makeshift identity “Belorn Blackhoof”, Atahalni has hidden in plain sight, looking for a cure. And with the recent return of Bloodsong from Hiatus, and the Black Blood perfected by the goblins of Undermine, a conclusion for his story is approaching…

Will he get his body back? Will he sell his (and others) souls to do so?

Will he come clean to his friends as to who or what he was? Or will he keep them forever in the dark.

Or will he die trying… As a hero, or a villain?

We shall see. All I know that the end is near. One way or another.

So TLDR: Atahalni started off as an edgy but ultimately a well meaning Horde member, and now has to choose between redemption and damnation in a desperate struggle to save his own life.

[Atahalni-argent-dawn (Atahalni)]

@Jazthi-argent-dawn

I added the idea that he’s a sickly, deformed Ice Troll, all skin and bones and not at all the hulking ice troll the other Drakkari were. His backstory was basically one big sob story about being bullied and unvalued by the other Drakkari, sometimes I cringe skimming over the short stories I wrote about him. It was just a bit too much.

@Jazthi-argent-dawn

He apparently chose the latter. He was found drowned in a bog in Zul’Drak, and got raised as a Death Knight of the Scourge. The very thing he’d fought so hard against. Only, it turns out, he’s kind of a fan. No more sleep? No more endless nightmares? Incredible power at his fingertips, with no caveats, no deals, no fickle spirits dictating if and how he can use it? No more caring of others’ opinions of him? What a WIN!

Ironicaly, I think Jaz’thi is happier now as a mummified corpse than he ever was in life.

Absolute kino. Would have loved to witness this arc the way you tell it.

[Kaitylinn-argent-dawn (Kaitylinn)]

When I first started playing Kaitylinn long ago in the ancient days of 2016, she was wiry, angsty, and painfully naive. A farmer turned military girl, with a strong sense of justice who so often got into trouble for not knowing when to keep her mouth shut.

…Flash forward to 2025, she falls randomly out of the sky zipping people away on crazy adventures to fight cartoonishly evil forsaken ladies in space.

Dont @ me, it’s called a character arc.