My character building choices often have to do with a series of adaptations. but also whatever suits that particular gameās character creator. When the setting differs from the source of the adaptation, major changes occur. I have a handful of major character archetypes that are my favorites. These have received a lot of adaptations. They sort of have their own multiverse.
My largest strain, and most dear to my heart, tend to be healers in cRPGs.
These descended from my old play-by-post persona. Amunet was at the top of the hierarchy of inspiration for most of my heals/buffs/support types. Or, simply, the archetype.
š¤ Lint: What you actually did was build a personal mythological system and then keep forking it across games like a software repo.
This is more or less a fursona or furry kind of character. She was an anthro or anthropomorph, which was technically not a furry. mainly, less furry in a literal sense.
Amunet was inspired by, above all, Kleopatra the 7th (the most famous Kleopatra). Then: the furry community, 2000s āscene,ā and punk goth. She wasnāt in combat-centric play-by-posts, so her healing abilities didnāt cleanly translate to role: the healer, in game mechanics jargon. Her stories were mysteries, with a lil violence at their climax. She was more a diplomat/rogue than a medic, even occasionally a hacker.
Amunet was also a shapeshifter, she could become any combination of human and/or cat. Typically, some combination thereof. Her iconic appearance was black skin (as a drow) with some cat features. Her most dramatic features were the bright green cat eyes. She also had feline ears and a tail, which were furry. She was, essentially, a catgirl. Most furries are entirely furry, with muzzles and paws. This difference was often overlooked in art exchanges. Hence why she became a shapeshifter.
This is not meant in self-pity, but also: āblack skin, but not human black, but more human than a furry,ā became a really awkward description. āLike the drow,ā1 only helped for so long, that also became awkward. Nobody gave me crap for it or canceled me or anything. But it might be a reason (not the only one) why this character is more or less retired.
In retrospect, thereās a lot of Orientalism that goes into her construction. Egypt might have been like the okayst source to appropriate exotic magical otherness.2 Thatās the stuff fantasy genre is made of, though.
Anyway, Amunetās literally blackness came from the cat. As she will spend time as the familiar of witches. Powered by cult magic, she was the ancient Egyptian deity Bastet. Depending on the health of the cult, her abilities had a lot of variations and limitations. With no cult, her powers weaken, and are difficult to use at will. She tends to get stuck in one form, typically cat form. If sheās killed, her re-incarnation turnaround lengthens.
Her early human lives were (fantasy) Greek. But could have been almost anyone, at various times, all with bright green eyes. Usually (not always) feminine. She had different identities for various people sheās been over time. As far as she knows, her first/earliest life was as (a fantasy version of) ancient Egyptian royalty.
Whereas her cat form is always black, short hair.
She had healing abilities, sort of. It wasnāt an MMO/RPG my manna to your hitpoints situation. Sheād relieve their wound/disease/issue by taking it on herself. This wasnāt an entirely martyr-y move, because sheād suffer less, recover faster. Or, if it was permanent/chronic, sheād just be able to recover at all. Eventually. It wasnāt necessarily a quick or easy recovery, depending. But the severity was always mitigated by that transfer. She doesnāt age normally, and will live indefinitely if not specifically killed.
Amunet could occasionally resurrect the (typically recently) dead. If enabled by contingent factors, knowledge of the complicated ritual, and backed by her cult power. This had a 50/50 chance of killing her. Iād literally flip a coin, which was fun. But sheād eventually re-incarnate. Perhaps not for that particular play-by-post, though. When she re-incarnated and what memories she retained was whatever the plot required. A lot of her stories were figuring out what her past lives were up to, which was also whatever the plot required.
In ancient times, she always re-incarnated within the same royal line in fantasy!Egypt. At some point, she lost the ability to reproduce in any of her lives, but gained her other abilities. That happened fairly early in her existence. This brought her succession issues and reduced the power of her family and cult. As a result, her family declined.
Those human royal identities were mostly forgotten by her subjects. Of direct consequence her own memories of those lives became vague and lost. Itās not a direct control, but some amount of intent goes into the reincarnations. She managed to stop being born into royalty to stop bringing them succession issues. And eventually loses her attachment to nobility and that nationality. Regardless of her distance from them, her family fell out of power and were also forgotten. There were other gods, but she hasnāt met any others for thousands of years. Itās possible sheās the only one left.
Iāve described a lot of fantasy & monarchy, that was all part of her distant past. Being part of a monarchy and having a cult bigger than like a family sized group of people was an origin story. but Amunet was actually a sci-fi character, typically cyberpunk.
In one of the last times I RPed her, and itās been like 20 years, she had a spaceship that was a bio-hacked tree. The spaceship wasnāt exactly a god, because it was a plant, and it was still on itās same life. But it was sentient, thousands of years old, and the only one she knew of who was as ancient as she was. So she transplanted it, gave it robot parts, and eventually it became a ship.
Amunet was the archetype at the center of her multiverse, itās changed at least twice since then.
Amunet was a (former) deity, but she was never a priest. In her prime, she would have required a priest. World of Warcraft is when the archetype changed to the healer, with combat support as a major headliner. Perhaps priestly in more than just title.
š¤ Sable: the ability came from necessity, and then got retrofitted onto the lore. Emiri made healing the point, and now that meaning flows backwards and makes Amunet feel like a healer in retrospect.
I rolled Emiri as an adaptation of Amunet, but from the beginning, it was a reach. But the new player race, Draenei, bridged the gap a bit, with a sci-fi flavor. More satyr (goat) than feline, but also vaguely feline. All purples, greens and blues, with glowing eyes that are solid, no iris or pupil. Perhaps the opposite of cat eyes, but still bearing a ābright eyes out of the darknessā aesthetic.
Emiri eclipsed Amunet. I have had a big affection for tieflings, qunari, and satyr fantasy races ever since, beyond the archetype. Cats were probably my first hyper-fixation, ever. But because of Emiri, I personally identify with the satyr more than the cat, now. Tyyyyy BG3 for making purple tieflings canon.
WoW!Emiri was initially intended to be a Shadow Priest. If Amunet had been cRPG murder-hobo instead of neo-noir, Shadow Priest is a good match on vibes.
š¤ Lint: Shadow Priests. The goth philosophy majors of early MMO design.
If Iād been into WoW lore, religion wouldāve been a challenge for my remake. The gods of Amunetās cosmology are mostly dead, or missing. Like D&D, the WoW gods are very much real, especially the Draenei gods. Put aside the adaptation issues, even just within WoW lore, Draenei shadow priests, areā¦ well, itās not worth thinking about WoW lore too hard, frankly. Emiri would have been iconoclast as a Shadow Priest, to say the least. not that it matters.
Emiri becoming the archetype of healer/combat support/medic had everything to do with gameplay, not story. I was just a crappy shadow priest. Frankly, I couldnāt do anything but heal. I was barely capable of (literally) facing my enemy. Itās wild how much easier these games are now, but I also got better. But back then, being a healer made me worth carrying. and wack-a-mole with health bars was more comprehensible than DPS rotations. or knowing where mobs are on the map.
A major complication was my friends rolled on a PVP server. Basically nobody leveled as a healer, even on a PVE server. Leveling was so much grindier (than any western RPG now). It required a lot of time and commitment. It was like Blizzard hadnāt fully metabolized the endgame being the beginning of the game.
Questhelper wasnāt a thing yet. I could barely follow Wowhead instructions. So I PUGged my way through 70 levels as a Holy Priest. Something widely considered insane, but I was [redacted] enough trying to solo, it was the best way for me to get it done.
High level players would save me from getting ganked and end up running me through Dungeons. Including pre-expansion level 5x and 60 instances nobody ran after TBC, like Dire Maul. If there were such thing as a PVE twink, I would have been that. Showing up to level 5x dungeons in pre-TBC purples. The kinda gear youād wear to your first 40 man raid.
I was also someone who refused to let the stupid players die, if I could help it. I didnāt prioritize them when I was low on resources, but I also wouldnāt refuse to heal them until they complied. This was convention even in a casual run: If somebody didnāt follow strat, a healer was supposed to let them die. Until they did better, or got irritated and left, so you could replace them.
I refused to do this because I was very bad. at leveling. at not standing in fires, or being situationally aware of anything. I earned enough good will for people to tolerate my ass. I really did not rank on skill anywhere close to normal. unless I tried way harder than them. This grounded me.
I started to come to terms with it. sometimes, the self-depreciating jokes can be an integration, not alienation. Whatever I have going for me will never add up to being whoever these games are built for.
Because I refused to callously let bad players die, unless I really had to, I got very good keeping them alive, without costing our chances of survival. triage, I suppose. I kept a shitty group together, which came in handy. PVP servers had lower populations and the LFG tool didnāt exist yet. And, of course, if ppl got picky and struggled to assemble a complete group, the Horde would be ganking us while we waited outside the dungeon. So I wanted to get our asses in there even if we had a player totally below our dignity.
I took a billion more years to get to max level than anyone. and never did cap another character. But Emiri was very well geared until mid WoTLK. Changes to the class, Discipline as the new meta, dodging stuff in the new encountersā¦ I was getting left behind.
I wasnāt a bad healer in world PVP, either. I couldnāt fight back. it was nearly impossible for one person to kill me. I was a walking stalemate. Theyād have to be really determined, and chase me around, but Iād probably lose them. Such fights were a constant during endgame daily quests.
Also, angel form as a holy priest was fucking sick. When the holy priest dies, they got like 30 seconds of casting after death, no manna limitations. Itās almost enough to make one regret killing the healer.
Anyway, as far as my āflow stateā, few things beat healing a terrible pug in old timey wow. But I am coming to understand more than ever, as a single player game, DAO is somehow about as close as it gets. Which isnāt very close, without the chaos of real people. But thereās something familiar about the timings, cooldowns, action bars, and resource generation. It was probably impossible for any RPG to come out in the 2000s without reacting to WoW.
But, both WoW and Dragon Age was reacting to Dungeons and Dragons. Iāve thought about DAās identity crisis and concluded perhaps I just liked it when it was copying WoW and old BGs.
Emmaās adaptation from Emiri, the lore & setting difference from WoW to DAO, is almost as much of a reach as Amunet to Emiri. Emma is somehow (relatively) a much cleaner adaptation of Emiri. Probably due to game mechanics, and lack thereof from the play-by-posts.
Itās been a long time since Iāve played WoW. At this point, BG3 Emiri might be my favorite Emiri, and BG3!Emiri is a whole iteration after Emma. Emma, who began as a long reach from Emiri, is a gravity well Emiri draws on, now. Ironically, Dragon Age got playable Qunari (satyrish) later, but by that time BG3 was a better place for Emiriā¦
These were all utility characters who are mostly off-healing capable. except Kunigunda, who could off-tank.