How did I get here?

[Doc-Holiday]

Everyone has their beloved character here.. but.. where did the inspiration come from? Show and tell time!


Weston Pendrot...

  A kindly older gentleman who is more paladin than sorcerer, weilds the arcane as though it were a divine gift and serves Lucinda with passion and honor. Chivalrous, Noble, Charismatic, and completely daft.

Weston was the by-product of my first real experimentation with RP characters.

On a server called "Astoria" I was surprised to discover that everyone played three types of character... Young Man, Old Man, and scantily clad vixens (in +6 plate mail bikinies no less) known as Young Women. To this mix I added my first non standard character, the Old Woman.




"Astoria" Elindra Farsndown

  An old matron, well to-do and wealthy. Wizard Specialist of Enchantments and producer of potions of various abilities. Elindra wore only the finest clothes and looked down on everyone. Due to server trouble and an explosion in vampire players I took the character concept to another server


"Lands of Acheron" Elindria Farnsdown

  While attempting to recreate the origional character I discoered I had misspelled the name. Elindria started off with nothing in this server. She wore only a sack cloth robe and I played her as being an kindly old woman who wore only the most mundane of clothing. Here I developed the relation of magical study with personality type. Enchanters do not deceive as an Illusionist does, so Elindria took on an aspect of behavior that built trust in people and encouraged those values and ideas that would promote actions and responses that were desireable to Elindria. Just as an Enchanter goes for the mind so did her actions and behavior take on an aspect of RP that required a great deal of attention and persistance to hold an entire city sway to her soft spoken influence.

  It was here that I learned to "play your attributes" as Elindria had 8 in each of her physical stats, she walked everywhere. Took frequent rests and carried only her walking stick and her famous yellow umbrella (that umbrella smacked many hands of many villains in it's day). Elindria also developed a style of play where her spell selection and casting was based directly on her school and her attitude. Enchantments filled virtualy every slot with only one or two offensive spells. What ever group she was in benefited from having their enemies suffer confusion and blindness. Though Elindria never actualy did much damage herself, she could turn whole battles in a matter of one or two spells.

  In the latter days I explored a method of RPing a character's skills and abilites to completely fit a class, and so... having a firm grip on this I explored the growth of a character beyond the standard boundaries. Elindria's long dead husband was a cleric of one of the gods in that world and so she was very faithful to the tenants and doctrins of that faith. With higher levels skills and spells were selected to reflect a sort of blessing by the god "Saint Cuthbert." Granting her the ability to cast a few clericesque spells. I.e. Planar binding and cure curse and cure blindness/deafness
 

"Lands of Acheron" Weston Pendrot

   With the successful creation of a nonstandard character that exemplified the very class of Wizard "Enchanter" I decided to take a less common character type "Old Man" and attempt to fully explore the possbilities of Nonstandard Class. Weston was to be a fighter/sorcerer... only without any fighter classes. Feats, abilities, and spells were specificly selected that would emulate the fighter class as closely as possible. Weston started off with his trademark Chilvarly and bad brittish accent, but lacked the loved attitude of being completely daft.

   Armed with touch spells and protective spells of vituay every type, Weston accelled to Lv8 where he became mired in an unfortunate state where his stats could not support his RPed desire to Fight and defend. Though he had a great deal more HP than other mages his level he had no ability in melee or spell casting.

   Counter spell, Weston's legendary to counterspell and destroy the enchantments of any and all mages in an area came from desire to show another character "Aleister" (Synpox) that I knew how to employ spells and tactics better than he. During single player the counter spell feature had been discovered and with Weston as a sorcerer I snapped up every dispel and anti-magic spell I could at my next level (. When next "Aleister" shot a "Ray of Ice" at Weston for a particularly witty comeback Weston was able to counter the spell and the reaction of "Aleister" to the effect cautified the practice as Weston's greatest Asset. Weston's abilities and feats were perminenet so the Chivilrous aspect became somewhat twisted into the rediculous idea that Weston was a warrior and that he was desperatly trying to relive his younger glory days.
   

"Layonara" Weston Pendrot

   With his trademark accent and silvery hair Weston has marched enthusasticly around virtualy every major city. Though still unable to be effective as a warrior Weston's great Charisma coupled with the successful emulation of clerical practice with Elindria, Weston's behavior took on a less insane manner and more of an ancient sense of Nobility, Chivalry, Respect, and Charismatic flamboyance that infects his every move, word, and action. Taking on the faith of Lucinda Weston's behavior has been that of a Pseudo Paladin, Living life as though he were one of the Honored Knights in a sort of sad and yet inspirationaly motivating dream of being more than he really is. Taking the idea of rping outside ones class has affected every part of Weston's persona... everything about him is above and beyond. Simple tasks like walking through a trap infested hall becomes associated with the same periles of a dance at the local Ball. Where each trip wire and pressure stone is a chance to mangle the delicate toes of a fair maiden, and the deadly results of her ire is equivilant to effects of said traps.

   Charisma accelerates the already rediculoul level of lunacy in Weston by creating a PseudoPaladin sense of confidence and courage, by which Weston will rise up to face creatures and people that would normaly mean his immediate death. This combination of extraclass behavior and thinking has left Weston with stats and quirks that make him irrelivant in all situations that don't directly involve a hostile magic caster. Irrelivance, however, has become Weston's standard and banner. His irrelivance to a situation never stops him from compounding a situation or cavalierly dismissing the dire predictions of enemies and encouraging them to "Have at, you fiend!" and shaking his sword in a rediculous display of abusrdity while at the same time being completely convinced in his convictions as to be bordering on righteous.

    In his present state Weston offers nothing to a group stat wise, offensice or defensive he causes more trouble helping then staying at home in Hlint on a bench. Yet when given the chance this character has proven to be my most favored as he is.. by his very deffinition ... irrelivant, useless, rediculous, and without effectivness. And yet he rises above all in his attitude, his mannerisms, and his approch to every enemey, be it goblin, badger, or lv 40 hell spawn. Weston has come to embody my most favored attributes, Charisma, Chivalry, Honor, Respect, Determination, Humor, Honesty, and Luck. I don't know who first said it, but it's true.. Weston is as clueless as Inspector Cleuso, as powerful and prone to accident as Inspector Gadget, oblivious to danger as Mr. Magoo, and as absurd and rediculous as Baron Munchousen.




So .. that's how Weston Pendrot came about... I decided.. a character isn't just a receptical to put a few ideas in, as though it were just an aspect of mysef.. but instead, a work of Art.

Now.. lets hear about your work of art!

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Well... I do play several characters here on Layonara, but the one I play the most is none other than Pyyran Rahth.

Pyyran started his days when I first discovered serious RP back in 2001, on a site called RPGChat.com. His name was Perrin Aybara, and he was more or less a blatant rip from two separate book series, the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, and the Shannara series by Terry Brooks. Imagine the Druid from Shannara imbued with an altered set of Wolfbrother powers, and there you have it. The character evolved over time, gaining modern touches when he entered a Rifts-based series of threads, and coming to be defined in form as the very twin of Kayin Amoh from the Battle Arena Toshinden games. By then, I had tossed aside the wolf-based powers and focused on developing him as a sort of fighter/rogue/sorcerer (though I hadn't gotten into D&D at that point, and wouldn't have put it that way).

When he was first concieved, back in his Druidly days, I wanted him to have an air of mystery and power... That shifted when the character started evolving, and by the time he had blonde hair, he was the sharp-witted, charismatic fellow who bears quite a resemblance to the Pyyran of today. Over the years that I played him, he developed further, acquiring a hero complex and a touch of melancholy... It was when I played my first D&D campaign that I tried to alter the name Perrin (which I stuck with, despite the obvious origin of the Wheel of Time series - call it an homage to my original character) to suit a less flashy, Perrin-y sort of guy. I played a Rogue, with awesome stats and carefully-selected skills, who was a cowardly, disreputable sort. He was CN, and was the cynic of the group.

His name was Pyyran Rahth.

As per my usual back then, I didn't have much of a backstory to him - a farmboy runaway, after his dwarven friend was killed by bugbears. And, honestly, it stayed that way until I picked up NWN. In the interim, though, I played him through two very different campaigns, run by two very different DMs. In the first, Pyyran was the Thiefy Rogue, whose cowardice and sharp wit saved more than his own skin a few times. He only got to level five, however, before I had to change campaigns. To be honest, I should've just waited for another - this campaign was run by a fellow even younger than myself, who ran a DM-PC Half-Dragon, Half-Celestial, Half-Fiend, Half-Gnome. Yes. That's two whole characters' worth of templates on one creature. The campaign reflected this muchkinism, and Pyyran found himself with some very nice and amusing items, including a spell-reflecting, stun-causing tapestry of an elven princess with a CHA of 45, and a set of Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses (which were actually from he first campaign because I kept searching EVERYTHING in detail). Rogue 5 / Swashbuckler 5 / Master Thrower 5 / Duelist 5 who had Tounges with Permanence and a Read All Script feature. To be honest, though, I didn't get terribly attatched to this character.

When I started playing NWN, I started out on Narc's Adventure Games 3.5 D&D thing. The character was Lark Derakin a Gnomish Sorceress. She was cynical, harsh, CN, and everything I could want in a woman. Her story? She was trying to find her sister, who took off after Pyyran when he passed through thier clan. (The sister's name was Robin Derakin, a Bard I use as an NPC in the games I DM.) However, when Aleister and Acacea were chatting in the RP chatrooms on Gamespy, I decided to look up this Layonara place they were talking about.

That brought me here.

In the beginning, I had completely forgotten about Pyyran's past regarding Derald the Dwarf (which is why he's not mentioned in my original submission). I also didn't know the first thing about Layonara as a campaign setting, and couldn't really understand that much from the handbook, as The Big Picture tends to take a while to coalesce in my brain. However, I did want to try playing Pyyran the way "he should have been played." So, I drew up a nice little bio, and, once it was approved, hopped in-game.

Pyyran (whose last name I left off of the in-game hovery thing because of a supposed text limit by Bioware) was originally much like his original D&D concept, though he was CG. He also happened to be a bit whiny, and I did my best to play his age properly - that is to say, he thought he was a man, but still had all the tendancies of a 17 year old boy. After playing him a while, he developed into a more swashbuckler-y type of Rogue. I've been slowly developing him as a person, having finally gotten his entire backstory hammered out, and he's come to be the moderately-stupid-heroic sneak with a sharper mind than his habitual actions would show. My main focus, with Pyyran, is that he is the absolute epitome of Chaotic Good - if I had my way, his Law/Chaos rating would be 1, while his Good/Evil rating would be about 80. I do my best to portray him as the archetypal Adventurer, and he happens to be my absolute favorite characer, ever. His basic personality is more similar to my very first character, Perrin (at least when Perrin was a bit more developed) than I would've ever expected it to be when I started, but I rather like it.

His flippant attitude towards most things reflects my playstyle, which has evolved around him. To start with, I was constantly confounded by two or three lucky arrows being able to bring me down, or even one good Goblin Elite wearing me out enough that his archers could help him to kill me. So, I finally learned how to use the Hide/Move Silently that I'd been dumping skill points into, in conjunction with the Sneak Attack I found more and more useful. However, as sneaky as Pyyran came to be, I never made that a central thing to his personality. When possible, he's a witty, personable fellow who refuses to take life as a whole too seriously. However, it doesn't stop him from taking individual things far too seriously, which is only one facet of the walking contradiction I portray Pyyran as.

He's a marvellous sneak, but he's flamboyant enough for it not to factor into his personality.

He's Good, but Chaotic enough to often seem Neutral or sometimes even nearly Evil (he has a PASSIONATE hatred for bugbears, and often simply dehumanizes whatever he's planning on slaughtering next to the level of animals at best).

He's Chaotic, but Good enough to often seem Neutral or sometimes even Lawful (I can't begin to count the number of times he's tried sacrificing himself to save others - his success rating, so far, is about 50/50 - or dropped everything for a favor someone called in).

He's incredibly insecure in himself, but he covers this with a massive helping of self-confidence that even he usually believes.

More or less, he's an exaggeration of me, set in Layonara (though without the extra poundage). So, at least for me, he's a blast to play.

[silverdraco]

Well my character here is Sonya Darsus who was first called Sonya DarkAngel.

Layonara is the world she has been first introduced in and I started her somewhere early this year when I went felt like trying Layonara. I made sonya after I had maken A mistake with the character before her. She was created while I was listening to some Music from Nightwish, after forever and some more. I think that nightwish affected her mostly because of a song they have: "Wish I Had An Angel".
Also the fact that I wanted to try Magic and thought that Sorceress would be the best choice I started on creating the means she would need to become a dark character with a good heart. When I saw that Pale master might be a good way to go for her I made her back ground to be a start for her to get to that class. The fact that she would be able to controle undead and perhaps even summon them were some of the reasons why I wanted her to go there.
RP-ing her how ever has shown me that there are other routes I would have liket her to go. and even now I'm thinking of how her Children en/or offspring would be.

Since I'm new to rp I feel that I should get all of my idea's a change and see what would work best for me. but the fact that I have started to like playing Sonya is part of the reason why I haven't submitted an other character yet.

[crazedgoblin]

ive made lots of characters on layonara but early on i settled with Jamesan Denday, at first i made him as a bit of comic releif tocounter the hardend personality of Jamekulus Gnald but as i continued to play him i started enjoying him so much more.
  One very funny thing i remember was once in Hlint at low level i was running around with Arcanist's bard ( i forget his name, sorry!) and there was a group at the benches and we ran in and turned the casting emote on and just started makeing up a song , i think it was Darkchild who eventuly screamed and jumped into the lake, ive never laughed so much before . but as he levelled up it was getting harder, a bards life is hard when he is amazingly good at failing to do things apart from sing and play instruments, eventuly i met a cleric called Dulan who was buying in knuckles and basicly we just continued to adventure together.
  Isuppose his personality comes abit from Twoflower from the Color of Magic, his amazing abilitiy to undererstimate danger and the adament idea that problems are solved by a good drink and talk but it also has a large bit of me in him , i think thats why hes my favorite character. so that is Jamesan, Bard, Looter and Invisiblity Expert.
  I found layo after floating about the PVP servers with Arcanist he found layo and i joined him here we created our first characters here and mixed their history abit, Jamzogie and Alwise.

[SuperMunch]

All my PnP groups have had a hatred for bards for some reason, nobody played them - so I had to inject knowledge into the players through very inconvinient NPCs, initially shady rogues but then they became flamboyant bards.  Since my worlds and campaigns are usually so full of intrigue and rich histories that I needed a way to introduce facts and truths to the PCs since I always had the characters from far regions of the world.

In my last campaign world, I had a devastating good looking bard with a big mouth and sense of humor based on Silk from the Belgariad and Jack Sparrow...  Freldo.

It's pretty nice to be able to play him in almost the same way I played his PnP version - last in/first out (i.e. chicken), constantly hitting on women (Player, in character: "Freldo, what do you think?" DM: "He's not with you, he slipped away and is chatting up a waitress"), and the same kind of stuff that he does now.

Layo's Freldo biggest difference from PnP Freldo is that I started in game as a battle bard - but I found that it wasn't going anywhere so started building the PnP version of Freldo.  A slight difference is that the PnP version of Freldo had a bagpipe - he was very, very loud.  

[LordCove]

Sallaron Tempest......

An idea for several Fantasy stories I have wrote over many years....nothing to do with RP, as this was my first experience.

Sallaron was meant to be one of those Chaotic, "unwilling and unwanting" heroes.....shying away from Adventure at every turning, only to stumble headlong into some of the most important events in my Worlds history. He was meant to be accompanied by his Courier friend Thark Verkas, and a evil, gnomish character called Gillen, whom the two hated, but discovered they needed also.

Their adventures took them far north of my world, to the city of Zicon, where the Nighstlaker roamed the cursed streets, and a confrontation with the undead army Legion would result in a huge battle, the destruction of Zicon, and the beginning of the ThirdGods War.....and all because of a stone.

....*glances at above*  How I wished I kept writing.

[Faldred]

The funny thing about Zug is that there is no interesting story behind him.  I started here by playing a character similar to the one I created to play the SOU expansion -- a rogue/wizard aiming for arcane archer.

Well, I was having a hard time adjusting here, being new to online gaming in general (at least, to cooperative online gaming... I had done some MUDs about 15 years ago), and combining that with playing a true "support" character made life a little more difficult than I expected.  (Choosing a Drow made life that much harder, in that players were a little mistrustful IC.)

So, I decided to just create a more... um... straightforward character that would make it easier to get used to the world and do a little exploring.  After all, what party couldn't use a big, strong half-giant to smash things for it?  So, with perhaps the flimisiest bio ever approved, I created Zug.  Who knew he would become my favorite?

[Ne'er]

Heh, anyone who knows me knows that I've gone through at least a dozen different characters here. However, of all my characters the one that had the most thought put into his backstory was Jet. Interestingly enough, he was also my longest lasting character.

The idea for Jet came about during a trip to Maine last summer for a week. We spent a lot of time, eating, fishing, and playing video games. Naturally, I had plenty of time to think of things to make for a character. While I was there I saw several different games, and in most of them there was that character that didn't seem to want to be there. The one who kept mostly to himself, and his history would be revealed more and more as the game progressed. That was one aspect that I tried to implement into Jet's character.

As strange as this may sound, all my characteres, when I envision them for the first time have an outfit. It is that outfit that I try to duplicate in game for them to wear. It was the tell-tale red armor of Jet's that was ultimately the inspiration for the group he was a member of, as well as a start to get his appearance. Again, its odd, but for some reason I think the majority of Jet's personality and history actually evolved from the mental image of his armor.

I also wanted to include one of my favorite types of storylines into my new character, the old student vs. master story. This was my way of giving Jet something to shoot for in the future. If there's one thing that my characters need to adventure, its at least some form of motivation. Be it because they are bored, poor, far too self-rightous, or something else, they need motivation, otherwise the character won't work. Jet's motivation was always there for me, a combination of revenge and redemption for his sins.

What was interesting is that Jet didn't actually have his entire past and personality until I finished figuring out the personality of his "Master" Tyde. Cold, and somewhat sadistic, Tyde pushed Jet further and further to become the perfect warrior. Yet when the time came for Jet to be another of his loyal comrades, Jet turned on Tyde, refusing to do his work anymore. Tyde was arrogant, and believed himself to be among the greatest swordsman in the world. He became a villian that people would love to hate. What's interesting though is that aside from the arrogance and lack of interest for other's lives, Tyde and Jet had a very similar personality.

Jet's early history (his childhood etc.) was the only thing I hadn't decided. How did he come to meet Tyde? Why begin training to be a weapon master? What about his family? This just came to me after awhile, there wasn't really much inspiration here. Jet was kidnapped, but not so uipset for it. His family hated him, so in a way he was almost freed from the kidnapping. It was here he met Tyde, and it was here his actually story began.

And that left me with just the name to be determined. I cut out the last name since Jet had forsaken his family after his kidnapping, so it left me with a first name. The name actually was a result of me misunderstanding the names of one of the characters in Final Fantasy X. I first heard the name "Jecht" as the name "Jet." The name Jet grew on me, and eventually I decided it went with the character.

And that's the origins of the cold, quiet, but fierce and determined Jet that we all know and love today. Well, that some of us know and less of us love, heh.

[Honora]

Both Honora and Corba were orignially PnP character of mine.  Honora was almost like you see her now; dictionary close at hand, poorly pronounced but decently spoken, loyal, lawful.  She was more brusque before NWN, I've softened her a bit and made her more physically ugly to compensate.  I got her to level 10 in campaigns.

Corba is a chance to show off my vocabulary and occasional wit.  She finished her PnP career a level 11 cleric.  I haven't changed much with her; she's a healer and a caster, not a fighter.  The original Corba was not chubby though, that's new.  

Interesting that both my characters seem to have spent a long time learning to read and write.  Just noticed that.

I will be coming up with a unique character for NWN 2, not based on anything from my PnP or gaming past.

[Nehetsrev]

Well, I've had three characters here at Layonara so far and they've all started in different ways as far as their initial development goes.  I first read about Layonara in an add/interview done for the NWN Vault/Community and so followed the link here because it sounded like Layonara had some great features that couldn't be found anywhere else.

My first character, Nehetsrev Llun, was a sorceror who'd lost his memory in an 'accident' here on Layonara.  I'd been playing using the name for other characters of mine in other gaming worlds, and Nehetsrev had first appeared as a Jedi initiate in the FreeWorlds mod created for the game Freelancer.  There he was a relatively peaceful space-born trader/scientist who found himself drawn into a life of conflict with pirates at first, then after researching what made the Force tick he decided to spend time studying with the Jedi to learn their wisdom.  His parents had both died of illness while he was of young age but not before instilling into him a strong sense of right and wrong which gradually began to slip as his life progressed.  In FreeWorlds, Nehetsrev eventually met his demise at the blasters of the Ssi-ruuk while fighting against their invasion.  His next incarnation was in Guild Wars where he was an elementalist/mesmer.  While I enjoyed playing him as such there, I found overall the world of Guild Wars to be too limitted in terms of Role-play & the development of character individuality (i.e. - everybody looked the same and few people actually RPed).  Next, before coming to Layonara, Nehetsrev appeared in the world of Dark Sun for NWN where he was a gnome sorceror, I'd made him a gnome because in his previous incarnations Nehetsrev had always been a very short man of about 4' 6" or so.  Admittedly, in Dark Sun I didn't really have a set background for him and so my own RP of Nehetsrev was lacking there and I quickly tired of him.  Finally I came here to Layonara, threw together his rather cliche background just to get a character in-game and begin playing.  After a time I realized he just didn't fit in with the world of Layonara so well and I moved on to create my next character...  (On a side note, Netesrev Llun is the words 'Null Verstehen' backwards, litterally translated from German to English as "Zero Understanding")

So was born Treana Min E'Zoenna (whose name most know means 'Heart of True Peace' in the language of her own 'Old Culture' which I'd originally began developing for another RP world of my own a few years ago).  Treana's background is also very cliche, a tragedy of loss of all family and loved ones that forced her out into the world after her village was destroyed by a combined force of Orcs & Goblins.  Unfortunately I was never able to 'set in stone' where this village had been actually located in the world of Layonara, but it was my plan that eventually for her CDQ I'd have her go back to try and avenge her lost loved ones and in so doing uncover the identity of the one responsible for organizing the Orcs and Goblins to come together as a fighting force.  This may yet happen eventually, but for now other things more immediate to Treana's present life have caused delay.  She'd fallen in love (or thought she had for a time) with Talen Sgath, their relationship ended and almost as quickly Treana found herself in love again, but this time with another woman, Addison Scarlace.  Treana's 'Old Culture' traditions formed a large part of defining who she is, yet they also brought conflict to her as two women to be in love with eachother was taboo according to those traditions.  Eventually Treana justified her love for Addison with reasoning along the lines of 'true love knows no race, gender, or logic' (thanks Rhynn), and that she was the last practitioner in her knowledge of the 'Old Culture' and so she had the opportunity to 'improve the traditions and make new ones'.  Then tragedy struck again, Addison died her last death and Treana was left to raise Addison's son Calvin.  Devastated by the loss of Addison only a month or two from the date their official wedding was to be held, Treana sunk into new lows of depression and I decided I needed to start a new character to get a break from the darkness in Treana's life for a while.

So, with Treana deep in mourning, grief, self-pity and despair, my attentions shifted to creating a character who would hopefullly fit in better with the Layonara world even better than Treana had, and who's personality would provide a light-hearted break needed before I returned to playing Treana more often again.  I researched for a few days different ideas I thought would be fun to try with a new character, admittedly influenced in part by oxmallard's choice of a halfling for his character replacing Addison.  As I studied the descriptions of halfings of Layonara, an idea for Lyle began to form, he would also be a halfling but what would his class be?  I wanted him to be unique so I looked into the PrC's and found I wanted to try for a Red Dragon Disciple eventually, leaving options of sorceror or bard as the initial classes to choose from.  Having tried a sorceror as Nehetsrev, I opted for bard to try something different as much as because I felt the bard class would lend more easilly to Lyle's optimistic personality I was trying to form.  So, next I did a test character build using single player mode of NWN and in doing so I found the 'high-strung evangelist' voice-set and fell in love with it for it's uniqueness (seems most everyone uses the same few 'cool-sounding' voice-sets even here on Layonara, a thing I wanted to avoid because I wanted Lyle to be unique).  From the voice-set a big part of Lyle's history and background became defined, it sounded 'down-right' country-ish and so Lyle became a country bumpkin of a halfling.  With further research I discovered a preference toward Prunilla would fit that country personality quite well.  But how to define in his bio the source of his dragon-blood heritage that might later allow him to become the Red Dragon Disciple I hope him to become?  And so the story of Lyle's great-grandfather Lyle was formulated and it also gave Lyle a reason to adventure and search for his lost relative.  Playing Lyle has been as much fun, or even more fun, as I could have hoped for.  Developing his bard aspect so that his songs aren't just words and music but indeed magical experiences supplemented with illusory images in some cases has also been an enjoyable aspect of his character.  Indeed, I try to have Lyle perform a song or two through role-playing a performance (usually in Hlint near the bank) every RL day I play him.  I try to RP even his spell-casting as a facet of his songs & music, being born of his heart and the power of his love for Lillian and life in general.

So, there you have the origins of my Layonara characters so far.  Maybe some day I'll see about making a weapon-master that focusses on the use of fans (or maybe whips if fans aren't doable) as her primary weapons of choice.  Could be fun to try anyway... *winks*

[Dorganath]

Connor has no background in any character I've ever made. In every way, he was pretty much a brand new concept and an unfamiliar character for me at the beginning. He was designed to be fairly ordinary, for lack of a better word, and so I gave him an ordinary name. Well, ordinary except for his inate spellcasting ability, which emerged at the onset of his adolescent years. He's orphaned, but not "hard luck" orphaned. He was lovingly raised by a human couple (a woodsman and his wife) with no other children of their own. His half-elven features and sorcerous abilities caused him problems where he grew up, such as being made to feel like an outcast by some, though most restrained themselves out of respect for his father.
  He was raised simply, and his approach to things is often simple, though with tendancies to edge toward the extremes. His most valuable possessions are generally of a personal nature rather than being some grand, extravagant display of wealth. Speaking of wealth, he's had almost none to speak of. At its best, his bank account measured at about 40K GPs. He's very curious and reasonably intelligent. Generally humble, he does not like to flaunt his abilities or accomplishments in most cases. He also has a streak of self-sufficiency, preferring to get by on his own rather than relying on others, which comes from the environment in which he was raised. Charity and gifts make him uncomfortable in most cases, and he'd rather not feel indebted to anyone, whether the debt requires repayment or not. He's a diplomat of sorts...dislikes too much conflict, though has fallen victim to his own chaotic emotions from time to time. Generally he's even-keeled and a general nice guy, but he has flares of temper and frustration that get released now and then.
  Circumstances have made him extremely devoted to Lucinda, enough so that he is nearly clerical in his pursuit, though it is not an avenue he is likely to pursue. He's very serious about his magic, so much so that he no longer wears any armor that might interfere with that. When he fights, he now fights nearly exclusively with an enchanted quarterstaff, though he does carry a longsword as well, just in case, and a longbow for when he is in a strong group or wants to get a little practice. He mixes magical and physical attacks in nearly every combat situation
  The concept I had for him was relatively simple, leaving most of his character and development to grow from being in-game. He's really pretty much a product of Layonara, except for the 20 years he spent elsewhere while growing up....which is a chapter in his life that is not fully written as yet.  
  Eldain is also a fully new character, though slightly based on druids I had played way back in my PnP days. As old-school as I am, he is True Neutral, as all druids had to be before 3rd Edition rules. He's not really a nice person at all, unless he knows you and respects you. He is an aggressive, almost animalistic Wood Elf who gave up the use of a long bow and the safety of the Ulambree when he became a druid, prefering to hunt, when hunting is required, at the level of his prey rather than at a safe distance. He's a devout follower of Folian S'pae and this philosophy seems to resonnate in his mind in that context. His manner is direct and often without tact. He's been known to break away in the middle of conversations, only to come back days, weeks even months later and wonder where everyone went (which is fine, because he doesn't see a lot of play time)  
  He's got little regard for anyone at first glance. He makes quick judgements about people within the first few moments and unless given some compelling reason to change, that opinion tends to stick. He rarely hesitates to make his opinion of someone known, often manifested by growling at them. Those of elven origin have an advantage, however slight it may be, with one singular exception: He absolutely HATES Drow. He also shows a preference to those who share a devotion to, or at least a respect for, nature. He'll go out and kill his own animals for food and pelts, the latter of which he will bring to a tailor for new armor. His primary weapon is a plain quarterstaff, and also carries a scimitar and a dagger. No ranged weapons adorn his arsenal.
  He is a planned character from day one. He's driven by a well-defined background and a nearly rock-solid personal philosophy. He's pretty inflexible and I don't see him changing really...ever.

[EdTheKet]

Let's see, September 27, 2003. EdTheKet joins Layonara. Been a while...
  I was completely new to roleplaying but did want to create a character that wasn't 'standard'. Enter the Dwarven Wizard idea.  
  I wanted him to have some kind of issue why he had to leave home so started writing on him working in the forge and having an accident, burning his face. His shame would then be the reason to leave, and would be a characteristic of him I could RP with, like hiding his face, showing it only to good friends.
  The wizard thing then came from apprenticing with a hedge wizard, and there you had it, Brac'ar Fireface,  dwarven wizard.
  And then when I logged in, I met another dwarven wizard, Alexei (yes, the one who's now an NPC in Casterly Castle), so I wasn't the only one with brilliant ideas
 
  The next character, is Zaraun of the House of Torlyl.
  This was in the days when dark elves were still severely restricted, meaning only three dark elves were allowed on the server. When a slot opened up, players could apply, and then the best bio would be chosen to fill the spot. I wanted to try my hand at a dark elf which wasn't a godoy goody one, as many are played these days, to show that it is quite possible to play a dark elf, not be evil, but not be goody goody either. Taking one of the dark elf cities I wrote about earlier in 2004 as basis, Zaraun was submitted as a rogue/shadowdancer and got approved for a slot, and there she was.
 
  Then even later still, I decided to try my hand at a melee character, as Brac'ar and Zaraun aren't that. I wanted a samurai like fighter, who was all about honor and viewed a fight as a Dance. This led to Sulo Banaka , wielding a double-bladed sword. But melee fighter&weapon master to be, didn't entirely agree with me, so he's still at level 5 and not being played.
 
  That's about it I guess.

[vgn]

I have and have had numerous characters here. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to play much recently, but this world still has great memories and I'll likely be back soon. But on with the discussion at hand, the one character who is truly my favorite is Vin Onyxshade. He, like all of my characters, is an original and not conciously based on anything other than the bio I brainstormed for him and his actions in the game.

I like playing shadier characters more than the upstanding hero type. A character with at least some rogue levels has always been part of my arsenal. Having several characters who talk nearly non-stop (read Sago and Bimpo) I decided someone quieter was in order. Vin doesn't say much and when he does it is quiet. It usually, but not always is worth listening too. This personality is actually closer to mine than others. I enjoy playing Sago and Bimpo on occation but they take a lot of work for me. Sago is a bit easier because I gave him my smarta** attitude, but both are very outgoing.

Having come from the Underdark and being a born survivor, Vin tends to stay out of the way and unseen for the most part. The first week I played him on the server he spent almost the entire time skulking around the shadows of Hlint's buildings, behind trees, and in general just watching and listening to people. He evesdropped on conversations and found interesting people to pay attention to. One day early in his career he even followed Gulnyr from Hlint all the way to Leilon. He hung back quite a ways and tried to stick to the shadows. At the time Gulnyr was a much better scout than Vin was at hiding. Finally in Leilon Gulnyr spun around and confronted him and Vin just bolted back to Hlint.

Vin continued to stick mostly to the shadows and has made only a few "friends," though more people than that likely consider him a friend. That may or may not work out for them someday as despite his harmless and quiet appearance he can't be trusted very far. This trait of few true friends Vin tends to pull from myself as I tend to top out the introversion scales on most personality tests.

From there Vin has just developed through quests and interactions with other characters in the game. The whole point of playing in an RP world like Layonara is to develop your character and see what he or she becomes.

[Leanthar]

Keep them coming.

[Shadowblade225]

How did I get here?
  Flash back to summer 2003. I didn't know a thing about DnD, but rather I just knew I enjoyed played Medieval fantasy style games. So I purchased NWN after loving Baulder's Gate, played it for a while, put it away, then came back to it.
  Spring/Summer 2004 - Starting reading on the bioware website about various guilds. I thought "how awesome. I'd love to find a good role playing guild to play a character type with other folks". So I searched for the most popular RP guild and found a PW world called "Lands of Acheron". I joined and became completely addicted to it. The character I played was an elvin ranger named Celorin or Quicksilver. It was a much smaller world and powergaming was reasonably controlled. Ended up getting quicksilver to level 23.
  I was fortunate to meet a friend or two that I still keep in touch with from that world. One friend had mentioned Layonara during the late summer/early fall, when Lands of Acheron was dying down. She in particular pointed out some of the nice features of it, but she herself was not a member yet. So we both joined together along with one or two others.
  Well this friend ended up dealing with Katrina (she lives in New Orleans) and had a child so her RP days were limited. She submitted a character, but never played it. I thought, "well, I've played a ranger, now let me try something different here".
  Hence I submitted a paladin, named Michaelis (picked the name from my own - Michael, made his likeness - physical appearance after me) and picked Draego for no apparent reason. Think I saw Rocky IV the night before *shrugs* can't remember. The last name doesn't bear much significance.  
  Regardless, when I joined layonara I was still considerably new to role-playing. I also didn't have a clue about how to create (build) or role play a paladin. I was the guy that during the regular NWN campaign, would never use spells and would never play wizards, only fighters, as I thought of the other classes as fairly weak - yep, big mistake there - would just hack and slash. The Lands of Acheron really didn't enforce the deity system and while the RP level was decent, it was no where near the level that Layonara requires. It was however, like layonara a low magic world (even lower than Layonara) so I was used to not having +5 swords and a lvl 40 character.
  A few folks on here, that still play I believe were also a part of Lands of Acheron.
  Summer 2006 - Still don't know that much about DnD, but still playing layonara. In a month or so it'll be Michaelis's two year anniversary!

[Nook]

Amber Mcduff, the first and only still living AD&D character I had.  First edition, she is a 6th level gnome assassign (highest a female gnome can be in 1st ed. rules).
I still have her character sheet, it's dated October 1992.  She now lives quietly in a hand drown world I created (over 2000 pages of overworld maps (100 octagonal miles, each one scaled down to 50 miles, then 25, then 10 then 5 then 1 mile octagons).  
She runs a small bed and breakfast with a weapons shop on the side.

I'll edit this later and fill in the gaps (do postings have a word limit?)