Brokencrowe's Guide To A Sound Biography

[Brokencrowe 111]

Brokencrowe's Guide to writing a meaningful and lore-based Biography:

The biography is probably the second most intimidating thing to tackle when writing your Lord

of the Craft white list application. The open response question coming first, of course. The

biography should be at least two paragraphs long, but often times would benefit from being much

longer, I find it hard to contain all there is to know about my character in two tiny

paragraphs. The first step is getting to know your character, perhaps brain storm many ideas

that surround your character; or my method just start writing. Organization can come later. By

no means go into the application writing process blindly, you should have fairly strong grasp

on who your character is, and where you want to take him prior to even reaching the biography

writing step.

The next step is to write the actual biography, which should include a history of your

character, which should be a highly detailed account of his life, and mostly his personality. The biography is basically telling us, the application team, why your character is the way he is going to be upon entering the world of Asulon. You should also include your characters faults and quirks, and a reasoning behind them. For example: Tomas has a nervous habit of biting his nails, this resulted from when his parents fought openly in the household, when he was a mere lad.

Okay, we can go deeper, why were they fighting? They were fighting over Tomas' future! The

mother wants to send him off to trade school, and the father wants to have him work at the

family farm. Suddenly you went from nothing, to Tomas living on a farm. This is a common way of building a character working off existing ideas, and bouncing them back and forth.This is when we reach another important aspect of your application, the lore incorporation.

This step is done to show us, the application team, that you have read and understand the lore

of the realm. This lore can be found here:

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage

This is the Lord of the Craft Wiki, it contains all the information regarding the lore and

rules and places inside of Asulon, you should read this in depth, and thoroughly and apply

these factors to your application. Now, what better way to wrap this up than by ending with an

example. I am going to write Tomas' biography from his perspective to add a spin to it, to show off the various way you can write a biography, not simply just in the third person.

Biography:

Entry 1:

My father once told me a story about a place he called Aegis, and how he had made a great

journey from Aegis to here, in a time period he called the Exodus. My father described how the

world seemed to be uprooted and overturned all around him, and how he didn't think he'd make it

here to our home in what is now Salvus. He sat me on his knee, and described to me how the

ships ran ashore upon arrival, and the supply of food was almost none-existent for a long time,

it was extremely difficult for anyone to get setup, as the lands were new, and resources hard

to come by. My father tapped me on the nose and told me that I was lucky to be born, I only

giggled at the time, not quite realizing the significants of what he had said. He is now dead,

and I write this journal upon returning from his burial. He lived a long happy life, at least

he died doing what he loved best. And that was working. He was a frail old man of around sixty

years of age, and he was stubborn too, he fell off a ladder trying to clear some muck from the

atop the roof.

My brother is off in Hanseti, working for some military group called the Wolverines, and my

sister disappeared with her long-term sweet-heart and we haven't heard from her in years. My

mother and I are the only ones left here in Solace, and the family farm now lays in my hands,

but that is somewhat useless now, isn't it? War has plagued our lands, and our Queen was burned

to death, I don't quite know what to do. It's all so frustrating.

Entry 2:

We sold the farm, didn't get much for it, but it was enough.

Entry 3:

We stopped in a Traveling Merchant Camp, they called themselves the Nawari, they sold us some

food, and we moved on. They did seem like cheerful folks though.

Entry 4:

We've stopped at the Cloud Temple for now, the monks have graciously gave us some food and

shelter for the night; I've not witnessed such warmth and hospitality since my youth.

Entry 5:

My mother seems to have come down with an illness, we're stuck in the Cloud Temple for now, the

monks assure me that she'll recover in no time, it's probably due to stress.

Entry 6:

The illness has gotten worse, she is spouting out none-sense. Something about the Nether and a

greataxe, and something about lightning and the Undead. It's been storming fairly hard

recently, I suppose she is having harsh flash backs in her state of delusion.

Entry 7:

My mother has passed in the night, the monks can't explain it. They said they assume the

illness was in her lungs, she lost the capacity to breath in her sleep. I don't quite

understand it, but... *The ink runs together, with what appears to be tear stains.*

Entry 8:

I left the Cloud temple, and simply started walking North, towards Hanseti. I was to find my

brother.

*Several pages seem to be missing from the journal, and many are too damaged to read.*

Entry 19:

Ate today.

*A few pages seem to be ripped out.*

Entry 24:

I've reached the large stone statues that marked the entrance to Hanseti's lands, this will be

the where I find my brother, and take the next few steps towards my new life. Or so I hope.

Notice how I brought random bits lore and places in throughout the entire biography, do note

that it doesn't have to be in this format, it doesn't have to be done in journal entries, or

first person. In fact it can be done in third person. I was just find it easier to dive into my

character somewhat when I speak from his voice. The point being, I've brought in seemingly useless tid-bits from the world of Aegis and Asulon and ended up making a more powerful biography, because I have a clear image of the world I am entering and the feel of my character in this said world.

I hope this helped! And good luck!

With much Love,

-Brokencrowe

[James Undercroft 129]

An excellent guide, well done! :) Cookies (or fresh cat treats, which ever you prefer) for you!

[hypercrit 237]

Nice one, Crow.

You know what they say! The early bird catches the chance to make a thread about making a sound biography! Or was it worms?

:P

[K33MST4R 219]

Excellent guide

[Rhia 936]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.