Creating a Character

Creating A Character

Felimath

© 1999 by Barbara Cummings

If you have gotten a contributing membership to Tower Mountain, the first thing you'll probably want to do is create an elf character. There are a number of limitations on the number and kinds of characters you may create. Tower Mountain can only support so many elves, so the number of characters which can exist is limited. During the Fourth millennium, the founding of New Hope means that the population can expand. However, if you want a pre-4th mil character, there are existing characters available for adoption. If this option sounds interesting, contact Kathy Coleman for a list of adoptable characters.
A Tower Mountain CIS (Character Information Sheet) is a brief description of your character. Since Tower Mountain is a shared world, other writers and artist will use this CIS when your character appears in a story.

A Sample Character Sheet

TOWER MOUNTAIN CHARACTER INFORMATION
ORIGINATOR OF CHARACTER: Your Name
NAME: Character's name. Tower Mountain elves use sound names.
GENDER: Character's sex
STATUS: Is this character currently alive or dead?
DECLARED? Is this character a member of the Declared?
SOUL NAME: With a VERY few exceptions, Tower elves do not use soul names
GENERATION/APPROXIMATE AGE/DATE(S) OF BIRTH/DEATH: Tower elves are, for the most part, first through fourth generation elves, ranging from 8,000 to 2,000+ years old. Exceptions would be elves born in the Fourth Milennium, who may be 0-200 years old.
ORIGINAL TRIBE: Depending on the age of your elf, this may be Tower Mountain, the Old Settlement, Ketsal's Band, or New Hope.
CURRENT TRIBE: Note here if your character has changed tribes.
HAIR COLOR/LENGTH/STYLE: Any "natural" color is acceptable.
EYES: Any

SKIN: Tower elves tend to fair skin, especially during the Third Milennium when few of them are allowed outside.
HEIGHT: Dependant upon the elf's generation (later generations are smaller.) Ranges from 5'6" to 4'6".
BUILD: Slender, "Blue Mountain" type build is most common.
VOICE QUALITY: What does your character sound like? Tenor? Alto? Does s/he have any noticable accent or other peculiarities? Does s/he sing?OTHER OBVIOUS PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES: Does your character have any identifying marks? Scars? Freckles? A long nose or large eyes?
PARENTS:
SIBLINGS:
FIRST COUSINS:
NIECES/NEPHEWS:
Until the Fourth Milennium, the Tower has very little contact with other elf tribes, so we do not allow wanderer characters before that point. If you adopt an existing character, or even if you create a new one, the chances are you'll be related to many other people's characters.
CURRENT MATE:Does your character have a life or lovemate?
RECOGNIZED?Is your character Recognized? Bear in mind that there are NO Recognitions during the Third Milennium.
PREVIOUS MATES: Since most Tower elves are several thousand years old, most of them have had multiple lovematings/lifematings.
CHILDREN: List any children your character has.
CLOSEST FRIENDS: List four to six elves your character considers friends.
BONDBEAST: The only bondbeasts available to Tower elves are hawks, and only the hawkriding Declared are allowed to bond with them up until the Fourth Milennium. Even in the Fourth Mil, after the dissolution of the Declared, bonding with a hawk entails responsibility and work.
SKILLS: The Tower is at a late Neolithic/Early Bronze age tech level. Possible skills your elf might have include spinning, weaving, pottery, glassmaking, hunting, basketmaking, cooking, etc. From the Second Milennium on, the elves have more leisure time available due to the service rendered by the Mraal, and many devote themselves entirely to artistic pursuits--dance, painting, sculpture, et. Consult the editor if you need to find out what skills are needed at present.
HOBBIES: What does your elf do for fun?
MAGICAL TALENT: In the Old Settlement and the First Milennium, the most common magical talents included gliding, rockshaping, and healing. Note that in the Third Milennium, Tyaar saw that all the other healers (except Mikail) disappeared, and most of the rockshapers were made into Functionals. Other acceptable talents are firemaking, deep sense, magic sense, finding, and watershaping. Treeshaping was always rare, and only two treeshapers existed in the Tower prior to the 4th Mil. No elves with the hypnosis or astral projection talent existed prior to the 4th Mil.
WEAPONS: Except for the hunting Declared, most Tower elves use weapons mainly for sport (fencing, target archery.) Common weapons for the Declared include spears, javelins, bows, daggers, and swords. Due to the presence of a small troll colony beneath the Tower, Tower elves have access to steel weapons; however, weapons of bronze and stone are still common.
JEWELRY:
OUTFIT MOST OFTEN WORN: Tower elves may have several outfits. Go for it!
PERSONALITY/HISTORY: Write a brief description of your elf's personality and history.

Some examples of completed CISes may be found through the links in the Mini Character Guide.
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