The following guide was written to introduce new and old players alike to the character creation form and assist in creating characters suitable for the Shadowlack universe.
Before you begin to create a character, you should understand that the stealing of characters, whether from copyrighted sources (such as characters from books, movies, or television shows) or from another player is not allowed at Shadowlack and will result in your account being permanently frozen. Shadowlack has board called Hatchling Central to aid you in creating your own multi-dimensional character, should you ever get stuck or need assistance. Feel free to ask any questions that you may have there!
The first step to creating a new character is deciding which species you would like to role-play as. Shadowlack is the home of 9 different species, ranging from the common Pendragon, the stalwart Anubi, the mutated Lukuo, to the delicate Feydragon.
All of the playable races at Shadowlack are anthropomorphic creatures, meaning that they are animal-like in appearance, but possess human-like characteristics.
When choosing a name for your character, try to make sure that it is both unique and memorable to you. Mundane and overused names such as “Bob,” “Sue,” and “Jacob,” do not fit the fantastical theme of Shadowlack. You may also use our Random Name Generator. If you do not like that, there are various web sites that specialize in naming and can be used as resources.
The next step to creating a new character is deciding what gender your character will be. You may create a male, female, or even create a gender neutral (androgynous) character. You may choose whatever you would like, and whichever you are most comfortable role-playing as.
Your character’s age tells us approximately what stage in life they are at. Ramathians in general live rather long lifespans when compared to humans. It is not uncommon for a Ramathian resident to live for up to 170 years. Consequently, their ideas of what a teenager is and what constitutes a mid-life crisis differ vastly in regards to our own.
Aging at Shadowlack is also significantly different. Normally when creatures age, they grow weaker and fall apart as their bodies slowly begin to decay and malfunction. This is only slightly true for Ramathians. As Ramathians age, they generally become more susceptible to diseases and illnesses. Many illnesses that would only cause a running nose in a hatchling can be fatal to an elderly Ramathian.
However, as Ramathians age, they also grow significantly stronger. This is largely due to the fact that as they age, they grow closer to Fronima. The closer they are to Fronima; the closer they are to dying: the stronger their magical abilities become. When the pull of Fronima becomes too great due to old age, the Ramathian’s soul gets yanked into Fronima and their body dies. There are very few documented cases of Ramathians who have resisted the alluring pull of Fronima past the age of 170. The pull of Fronima is stronger on those who have an affinity for magic; consequently, they tend to have shorter lifespans.
Below is a small chart with Ramathian ages and their Human equivalents.
class="wikitable"
! Ramathian ! Life Stage ! Human |- | 0–1 | Baby (Hatchling) | 0-2 |- | 7 | Preschooler (Niotie) | 5 |- | 18 | Adolescence / Puberty | 13 |- | 24 | Teenager | 18 |- | 30 | Young Adult (Arden / Thill) | 20 |- | 35 | Adulthood | 25 |- | 60 | Middle-aged | 44 |- | 80 | Senior (Kiom) | 60 |- | 170 | Really frakking old | 85 |- | 175 | Why aren't you dead yet? | 115
When creating a character, you are given the ability to assign them two trades. Trades should reflect what your character does, or wishes to do for a living. Visit the Trade Catalogue to see the large list of trades that you may choose from.
On character profiles, trades are ordered first by trade rank (so a Journeyman rank will be displayed higher than a Basic), and then are ordered alphabetically. What order your character’s trades are displayed in does not necessarily reflect what your character chooses to major in.
Character traits are a unique feature to Shadowlack. When creating a character for the first time, you are asked to select seven character traits in order to describe them. These traits are divided into three categories:
These traits are to serve as a foundation for you to build your character upon. Simply choose seven words that you believe best describe your character.
After you create your character, you will have the option of making Special Requests with them. A Special Request is something that is considered just slightly outside of the norm, such as adding additional trades to your character.
If you are seeking permission to create a character that you're not sure will fit into the game, please post in the Help Desk.
Shadowlack maintains a near real-time World Census page, so that at any given moment, you can see what types of characters are popular and in demand. Not quite sure what sort of character you would like to create on Shadowlack? You may view the to see what types of characters we are currently lacking and try to fill in a gap.