this can be as simple as a line of character development you ended up not going for, a character concept you ended up ditching - or a guild one, or anything rp-wise. maybe a storyline you ended up not DMing or a one-shot event.
basically, maybe you had a concept of some sort once. you didn’t put it into action. i’d love to know what the idea was, and why you didn’t go ahead with it.
years ago, i was going to make one of my druids a druid of the talon, but their planned personality, experience, fighting style and such made druid of the claw more of a fit, so i ended up going for a druid of the claw instead. i was pretty new to WoW lore at the time, and my druid before this one was already using bird form, so i wasn’t exactly missing out really.
well, i guess i kinda was though, since the sha’tar was dead at that point.
A warhammer-wielding Kul Tiran druid. Sort of a mix between your typical barbarian archetype and a druid that uses mostly bear form. While I still love the idea, I couldn’t really think of a rational-sounding way of pulling it off – with some grace, anyway.
That and… the Kul Tiran body type isn’t shown in a very flattering way with most leather sets…
Close to this. Except it was years ago back in cata, i really wanted to give the stereotypical barbarian role a twist by having my giant axe wielding slab of muscled rage into some highly atypical interests.
Rips head off bandit with bare hands, gets upset that severed head sprayed blood all over the petals of a rare mountain flower that he is now gently brushing off with his fur loincloth while lecturing group about how you can tell this particular variety of Lilly by the arrangement of its petals.
Growls his disgust at the local Stormwind street artist for their feeble and pathetic attempt at capturing his likeness, proceeds to patiently demonstrate the finer brushstroke needed to show how the light reflects off his muscles while offering gold to buy better paints.
I’ve long wanted to do a small guild event series based in the Badlands that is basically me ripping off as many Wild West tropes as I can; including raptor hustlers, rival artifact hunters, and a quick-draw stand off.
I don’t really like having characters on Argent Dawn that I have no intention of roleplaying, so classes that can’t be human or worgen I typically avoid, but I thought I’d make an exception, make a demon hunter for the fun of playing it, and try to make it into a roleplaying character, and by using the dreaded, cursed words:
Not. A DH. IC.
So instead of going for the DH route, I wanted to try and make a nelf warlock, but I just never found the inspiration to play him beyond filling out his TRP and thinking of some backstory elements that were never properly set in stone.
Concept: Ogre guild
Reason it didn’t happen: Requires too many toys, prisms and people. You’re limited to a lot of “not a rogue IC” because of the glyph. You’re also limited to just weapons in terms of transmog. Overall, it’s just too much maintenance.
Solution: Make ogres an allied race already.
I had a concept for a void elf who fought in the Northend wars and went crazy because having spent too much time in Saronite mines and maybe had direct contact with the ore. Once back in Quel’Thalas, she decided to pursue the Void magic further and got exiled, seeking out Umbric’s lot and joining them before entering Telogrus. I had this idea for an antagonist character who only pretended to be able to resist the whispers, but didn’t kick it off in the end. Can’t remember why I ditched her.
A warlock school - RP Guild. One focused around decoding codes and secrecy in order to get in and which would explore the lore implications of each spell and skill that a Warlock has and what their capabilities are.
I once had a concept for an old burning blade blademaster, but just happen I joined the wrong sort “Orc clan” or what ever the idiot called it, and ended up really hating my char and the path he took so I just left the guild and race change him, a shame, but things like this really hit hard for me.
But hey, I made a great char out of that race change so something good came out of it.
A Theramore Marine that witnessed the destruction of Theramore from the ocean and was utterly broken by the event, damned to wander the streets of Stormwind as a drunken pauper. The plan was for him to slowly lose touch with reality and, after having been swindled into purchasing a pocketwatch that was said to be a stolen artifact of the Bronze Dragonflight, he would say his goodbyes to any friends he made during his time as an existing character and sail out to Kalimdor on a rickety raft. His was plan was to use the pocketwatch and turn back time, warning Theramore of what was to happen. His fate would be left open ended, the most logical explanation being that his boat sunk in the middle of the sea and he drowned, finding peace in the dark abyss.
I had an idea for a warlock character that would outwardly come across as rude, abrassive, secretive and distrustful, while also walking a fine line between “good” and “bad”. I also had ideas for their warlock magic to be more pact based like a DnD warlock.
Eventually through RP it would come out that their reasoning for being the way they are and exploring darker magics is to ressurect their long deceased sister into an entirely new and stronger body, and to kill her abusive family that was the reason for her sisters death (And to a lesser extent her attitude towards life in general)
While not the best of concepts, in the hands of a good RPer this probably could have been done well? Unfortunately said RPer was not me. Within the first few weeks/months while trying to properly flesh out the character ect, I overblew their personality right into chaotic evil, and made some questionable IC decisions which in hindsight the character wouldn’t have made.
I think this was what lead to The Fallen Leaf deciding to kill the character after an event series that finished with the character making their first pact. They already heavily disliked and distrusted the character and were practically gunning for an excuse to kill them rather than that being the first majorly questionable moment.
I might bring the character back at some point, the concept still intregues me and I can think of ways that death might have changed them. But I think it might be best to go for similar character concept that is more likeable.
Not necessarily directed at you, Kinoro, but I think it’s fair to say that just because something happens IC, it doesn’t validate the concept.
I’ve seen it used as an excuse before for lightforged elves and etc, and it never feels like a fitting justification for a concept that’s not really fitting to the setting or something that doesn’t have basis in the lore.
From the in-game Adventure Guide for Scarlet Monastery:
Brother Korloff first learned of the monk’s deadly arts from pandaren ambassadors as they journeyed through Azeroth. When the crusader demonstrated this martial style to his superiors, they unanimously ordered Korloff to train an entire generation of initiates in the ways of the monk.
Knowing they’ve interacted in the past, a Pandaren having learnt about the Light from the Scarlet Crusade doesn’t seem implausible, though it depends on the specifics.
I got invested half way through that paragraph