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Many many years ago, when I was about the age of 14, I somehow stumbled upon the world of online role-playing.
Obviously, it's not like the conventional role-playing in the sense of having
to follow strict rules of building your character. The role-playing I found
was centered around people who love to write. They have a passion for writing
creative fiction, and what could be a better way to develop your own writing
style than writing with someone else? The way it worked was: two of more
people would gather - whether it be in a chat room, personal instant
messaging, or on a forum or message board - and write back and forth to each
other. The stories were short and left open so that the next person may step
in and add to it from their character's point of view. Together people were
able to create stories they could never imagine on their own. Those who loved
to write viewed this style of writing as a creative challenge that they took
very seriously.
Unfortunately a lot of role-playing communities are filled with people who do not take it seriously. They are filled with children who develop these "god-like" characters who were invulnerable. Back then - and even now - it was hard to find a group of people who seriously wanted to write the best they could, even if it is just on a role-playing message board. |
I don't really remember how it happened, but through my journey through different role-playing communities, I was invited to a community called G.E.M. Gaming. They started out as a community on AOL, and eventually moved to forums. They had an interesting system set up where people's characters could get "stronger," earn money, and travel between different kingdoms. The setting was medieval fantasy - which is my preferred setting. So I took my character - Robin Karif - to this community and began writing.
Robin Karif was a character I had made up out of the blue one day. I have had many role-playing characters; some where "borrowed" from anime I was watching at the time, others were complete creations of my own - Gwendolyn, Celest, Ciara. But out of all these characters I had created, Robin was the one who I loved the most.
Robin was born in the Kingdom of Khiel. Her father was its king, and in this particular setting, Robin did not care for the royal life. She didn't want to be a "princess" and be treated like she's better than everyone else. She firmly believes, rather foolishly, that everyone is equal and good, and she's quite naive and overly trusting. She's a clumsy girl, always tripping or falling over, but she has an uncanny talent with a sword - a talent that was taught to her by her elder brother Dyllis, who is 10 years her senior. Due to their age difference, the siblings are extremely close and care about each other more than most people care for a sibling.
Being fed up with her living situation, Robin decides to run away from home. She leaves the castle, and during her flight the poor girl ends up breaking her ankle. She manages to get herself to an isolated tavern, where she befriends a woman named Anya. The two get along quite well. Robin learns that Anya is a young queen herself, and is invited to stay with her at her kingdom. Robin was reluctant at first, but decides to go along, as long as she isn't stuck within the castle and was free to travel wherever she pleased. Anya agrees.
While in the kingdom - known as Velstand - Robin meets many interesting people. Lereela - a shy but intriguing woman; Damon - a drow who Robin fell in love with, but her heart was broken when he leaves her unexpectedly; Luna - a rather obnoxious woman who somehow found herself everywhere; Taiaka - another drow who very much loved making people's lives miserable, but was very friendly to Robin. It was Taiaka who christened Robin with the nickname "bird," which was fitting due to her name, her innocence, and her red hair. Robin interacted with most of these characters on a regular basis - mostly with Anya and Taiaka, and until he had to leave, Damon.
I'm still very much in love with this character. I'm currently in the process of
creating a novel that is centered around Robin. Some events that happened in my
role-playing may find themselves in my novel; however, her background and much
of the storyline will be changed. Despite that, Robin is still who I created her
to be - a sweet, innocent, clumsy girl who is too trusting for her own good. In
posting my old role-playing logs, I'm reminding myself of the type of writer I
once was, still am, and hope to be. I hope you enjoy it.