Backstories

I was thinking about roleplaying last night during the Gruul raid, and why I rp with Kit and not with Ravven. I do have a (thin) rp backstory for Ravven, but it’s a negative one…probably based on the fact that I just don’t like her very much.

On my guild app I used this story snippet for Ravven, a gently-born person banished from her family due to her embarrassing sexual fetish for demons:

Ravvenna rose from her bed in the inn, and went over to the cracked chest to wash her face and get ready for the day. This definitely wasn’t the environment that she had grown up in, but the days of living in the luxury of her ancestral home were long behind her. Hmmph, their loss. She tossed her pale hair and looked closely at her skyblue eyes. No lines there yet – she was still as beautiful as ever, although it was getting difficult to maintain her wardrobe while travelling.

The bedclothes rustled behind her. Looking in the mirror, she could see her minion Selxia sitting in the rumpled bed, sulky expression on her face.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Ravvenna said, just so that she could see Selxia’s expression darken.

There would be another battle today, and again she would kiss Selxia deeply and then sacrifice her, drinking in her powers, knowing that she would call her over and over again, sacrificing her when needed. Selxia would never, ever be free.

No, Ravvenna was not a nice person.

And why don’t I like her? The way that she looks, in part. She was the very first character that I created in the game, and I’d chosen dark skin, white hair in a ponytail, and big eyes for maximum contrast. In reality, she looks like a heftier version of Malibu Barbie with big googly eyes. She’s not interesting.

Kit, on the other hand, I’ve always seen as a real person. I rp her as a personality very similar to my own, but much more extreme. She’s a spiritual type who has been scarred by her experiences, so she is torn between her mystical nature and the times when anger takes her over and only bathing in blood will ease her pain. Not that I ever act it out, of course…but anyone who has been with me for any length of time knows that I have (rare) moods when I would gladly take every element of my life, relationships and jobs and home, things that are precious to me, and destroy them in a cold rage, regretting it later. Kit balances a desire for peace and connection to nature and the goddess with someone who could destroy for the joy of it, just to release some of the anger and pain. She’s a much deeper personality than Ravven.

Relating to the issue of characters having lives and backstories, I’ve always found it interesting that (pre-TBC) Ravven “wanted” to live in Stormwind (where she goes to the AH, etc.) and Kit “wanted” Ironforge…although she doesn’t feel as though she lives there. Azshara is her home. It wasn’t a decision that I made, it just felt as though that was where each of them needed to be. Strange.

Does that sound bizzare? Perhaps it is…but it’s part of the reason why I play. If Kit didn’t feel like a person, I’d still be playing first-person shooters or something. I like living in her skin.