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This website.... No wonder Fan Fiction has an awful rep. I've never seriously looked into it before, but I have at times thought that an excellent writer with a deep knowledge of a game universe could pull off some worth-while writing, such as perhaps a well-done novelization of the original game story or an exploration of an unresolved facet of the story. (After playing through FFVII a few years ago, I myself toyed with the idea of writing a short story about Jessie, a very minor character who still shows some depth in the game by expressing an unreturned interest in Cloud and eventually meeting a tragic death. Probably not something that I'd do now, but it isn't a terrible idea.)

But this stuff.... I went to "Games" and chose the work with the highest reviews, and it was appallingly bad. Bad spelling, bad grammar, bad representation of the characters, bad grasp of game lore.... I have nothing against the author, of course, but I do now finally understand why the mention of Fan Fiction makes people want to vomit. And makes me think of this.

I'll just leave this here.

Huh, go figure. The Blue -> Azure -> Azura process was the exact same logic train I had. It would be a long and rather pointless explanation, but basically Sofia'll have a lot of blue stuff going for her (also in The Wise Man'd Fear the main character's sword was called Caesura/Kaesera so it probably helped Azura sound awesome to me). I actually had the idea of a blue-cloaked Sofia first so seeing the mages had to wear blue made me all happy inside xD Anyway it's up to you whether you want to change it or not: I already feel bad for having you edit on my part once already...

Alright, I've edited my post; the town is called Azura again. I tried to undo most changes I had made to it in the first place, as I guess making any changes to old posts is kind of against the spirit of role-playing.

@WR: How far from the Tower is Farrance? Is it more than a day's walk?

Huh, go figure. The Blue -> Azure -> Azura process was the exact same logic train I had. It would be a long and rather pointless explanation, but basically Sofia'll have a lot of blue stuff going for her (also in The Wise Man'd Fear the main character's sword was called Caesura/Kaesera so it probably helped Azura sound awesome to me). I actually had the idea of a blue-cloaked Sofia first so seeing the mages had to wear blue made me all happy inside xD Anyway it's up to you whether you want to change it or not: I already feel bad for having you edit on my part once already...

Don't feel bad for having me edit my part. In fact, I feel rather silly for not remembering when I was writing it that your sword was named Azura as well. Anyway, I have to admit it is quite the coincidence, so I'll change it back tomorrow morning. After all, those funny coincidences are inherent to RPing and it would be great if they could grow into something amazing.

I mean, when I GM and a character does that, I have somehting happen to them which causes the character to move in a different direction. And then later something comes back to bite the character for forgetting to fulfill what the player added in. Teehee (I can be mean).

Rose, I humbly request you do this just this once c:

Also it's absolutely nothing SBR I was just mentioning I found it funny! I was actually slightly-brainstorming ideas if I could give the sword an origin somewhere in that village sice I found it a pretty cool coincidence. May I ask how you came up with the name?

My head had started connecting the Tower and the color blue (blue robes etc.) and I wanted to give the town a name that would fit within my mental image of the Tower and its surroundings. That's how I came up with that name. However, it may also be because I had read Sofia's character bio containing the name a few days before, of course. If you want to give the sword an origin in the village, I could change the name of the town back to Azura (or perhaps Azure?). Nothing has happened after my post yet, after all.

Also why does Leon's home  have the same name as Sofia's sword ;~;

I honestly hadn't noticed that... I'm sorry; I'll edit my post. I mainly needed a home town for Leo and ended up overestimating how far a mile was. I'll make Farrance Leo's home town and make him escort a caravan to a different town. I've never participated in an RP before, so feel free to correct me if I do anything else wrong.

Anyway, I like Dreaming Sun's idea as well. I didn't really have plans for Leo anyway, aside from Azimuth travelling with him for a little while.

   "Seriously, is that all you've got?" Leo asked with a grin. "We've been training for a while now and you still can't even hit me. Well, I guess that's what you get for spending all day inside, reading your dusty books."
   Azimuth backed away from Leo, but didn't lower his stick. The two had been training for a while now, but he still had not been able to land a single blow on Leo. Leo's cocky remarks were getting on Azimuth's nerves and he knew he would regret it if he couldn't wipe that grin of his face. The magician concentrated, focused on the particles located on the outside of his stick and made them all vibrate in the same direction. This gave the stick a faint glow, invisible to the naked eye. When Azimuth had been practicing his weapon enchantment spells, he noticed that even his elven eyesight proved not keen enough to witness the faint glow enchanted weapons were said to give off. However, Azimuth managed to design a spell that enhanced his eyesight even further so he could see whether his - or others', for that matter - weapon was enchanted.
   Suddenly the magician dashed towards his opponent. Leo raised his sword in an attempt to block the incoming blow, thinking he would succeed, but his jaw dropped as Azimuth's stick sliced right through his. Azimuth made use of Leo's confusion and pounded him in the chest. He was overjoyed with his success. Finally, he was able to land a hit on him! But his happiness quickly receded as he looked up to Leo's face. The face bore the same, cocky grin it always did when the two were dueling; the blow had not even fazed the warrior. "That's enough for today," Leo said, as he walked away. Azimuth followed him.
   "You should try to control your emotions. A warrior who isn't calm at mind can never win a battle."
   "Oh, don't get me wrong, Leo. I was perfectly calm, alright. I'm a magician after all, and you can't cast spells without concentrating and keeping your emotions in balance. Although this one particular spell did not even require much concentration," Azimuth said with a grin, "it didn't even need an incantation or a tome. You see, I simply manipulated the particles on the outside of -"
   "Azimuth!" Leo scolded. "You know I'm not interested in that sort of stuff. Don't bother me with it."

   Azimuth had known Leo for a long time. Leo was three years older than Azimuth and they had met when Azimuth was 10 years old. Back in the days, when Leo never had to travel, he used to often sneak inside the Tower of Magi. He excelled at being stealthy and even at a young age, he was able to go anywhere unnoticed. However, he turned out to be more of a warrior than a rogue. He prefers man-to-man combat to stealthy assassination, although if the need arises, he's prepared to sacrifice his honor in order to help his friends.
   Even back when they were young, Leo had a handsome face. All the women in the village and the Tower said that he would grow up to be a handsome man. And right they were; with his blonde hair and broad shoulders, he was considered very attractive by all women he met. His lack of scars showed his combat skills, or rather, his ability to avoid combat, for he was not only a brave warrior, but also a skilled diplomat.
   He and Azimuth used to be best friends when they were younger, but due to their different rates of maturing - humans mature twice as fast as elves -, they grew apart. However, right now, Azimuth is an adult even according to elven standards, albeit barely, so he decided to contact Leo and ask him to help him with his sword fighting. The moment the two saw each other, they knew their friendship would once again be as strong as ever.

   "Once again, thanks for your help, Leo." Azimuth said.
   Leo shrugged. "You're welcome. I'm glad I could help you out. Although..." He paused. "I still don't like the look those magician friends of yours give me. Why don't you come to Azura next time?" Leo lived in a small lakeside village near the Tower. The lake was widely renowned for its beautiful azure color, which had given the village its name.
   However, what Leo said was true. The magicians of the Tower of Magi didn't hold sword fighting and martial arts in high regards. They preferred the ways of magic to physical combat, something they had come to see as barbaric. Besides, when practicing sword fighting, Azimuth didn't wear his blue magician robes, for they got in the way. Rather, he wore a white shirt with brown trousers. The magician robes had holy symbols on them; they served to thank the gods for their gift of magic. Some older mages considered a magician not wearing his robes as an ungrateful one and thought it offended the gods, although Azimuth saw little reason to believe that.
   "Don't mind them, Leo. Besides, you know I don't like traveling far from the Tower. Azura is relatively close, but I would still rather stay as close to home as possible. Anyway, I really have to go now. I'll see you later!"
   "Oh, about that; I'm going on a job tomorrow. I'm in dire need of money right now, so I need to protect a caravan traveling to Farrance." He was a mercenary - and a good one at that -, but he was also rather lazy and preferred spending his time in the taverns of Azura to traveling the world, so he often was in need of coins.
   "Farrance? That's quite far away. I guess that means we won't be able to practice sword fighting together for a while, right? It doesn't matter; I have some studies of weapon enchantment to do, anyway. Next time you see me, I may be able to set my stick on fire without it burning away, so be prepared."
   After they had said their goodbyes, Azimuth entered the Tower and made his way to the uppermost floor, where the private study of headmaster Melyr was located.
   When Azimuth reached the top floor, he looked about. The hallway had always amazed him. Red and silver curtains hung from the ceiling, preventing the sunlight from heating up the hallway, and paintings decorated the empty spots on the walls. Azimuth knocked on a wooden door with gold decorations and when he heard a voice respond from the inside, he opened the door and entered the room. He rarely got to see the inside of the headmaster's study, but nevertheless, he considered it to be the most beautiful room of the entire Tower. All walls were covered with bookcases filled with ancient but powerful tomes and a number statues crafted by the finest sculptors of the entire kingdom covered the tables and desks. In the middle sat Melyr. He smiled at Azimuth and beckoned him to come closer. Melyr handed Azimuth a sealed scroll and Azimuth could feel incredible magical power radiating from it.
   "I would like you to take this to Farrance."

Welcome to CP.

[Name]

Spoiler: ShowHide

Name: Azimuth
Gender: Male
Race: Elf
Age: 37
Class: Battlemage

Physical Appearance: It is clear that Azimuth is not used to strenuous, outdoor physical activites; he is not particularly muscled, has a little bit of fat and his skin is rather light, though not pale. Apart from that, he looks like a regular elf, with pointy ears, a long face and blue eyes. However, unlike many elves, he is rather tall, even for human standards. The clothes he wears are pretty plain and not exceptionally interesting, as he wears the characteristic blue robe of the Tower of Magi. He also wears a ring with a red unidentified gem, which is the only remnant he has of his parents.

Background/Profession: Having been abandoned by his parents in the forest when he was still a baby, carrying only a ring with a red gem, this foundling was found by a group of magicians from the Tower of Magi. There, he was raised as a magician. He was named Azimuth, for it was customary for younglings found by the magicians of the Tower to be given names which found their origins in scientific terminology. Not having all too much to do, he heavily focused on his studies of natural sciences and magic. He's fully aware of the negative impact the magic has on his body, but as he was born and raised in the Tower of Magi, he doesn't really know better than this life. Besides, he sees the Tower as his home and the inhabitants as his family. He wouldn't have it any other way. Also, he secretly hopes his magical endeavours will eventually somehow lead him to his biological parents. He got this belief at a very young age, though he doesn't know where it came from, and has never since shared it with anyone, feeling it might ruin what he has come to see as a prophecy.

Though he is still young according to elfern standards, he has spend every year of his life studying hard. It's difficult work, but he doesn't mind, as he actually enjoys studying. In fact, he hardly ever leaves the Tower and has never traveled far from it, for the farther he traveled, the more homesick he got and the badlier he wanted to return to the certainty of his studies. That's why his magical capabilities are above standard for someone his age, although they are very minor compared to those of some of the elderly mages living in the Tower of Magi. Due to his rapid learning, his friends gave him the nickname Zenith a long time ago, for he used to rise above most of them, although by now he has made new ones far more powerful than himself. Nobody except for his best friend is still aware of this old nickname and even he seems to have forgotten about it. Lately he decided to spend some of his spare time on training in swordmanship, for he did not want to fully rely on magic in case something unforeseeable happened. Although he has slowly been improving, he's still not capable of defeating even the weakest goblin without the help of his magic. This partially has to do with the negative impact the magic has on his body, as well as his lack of natural gracefulness and talent for swordfighting.

Personality: Azimuth likes to think a lot. This helps him with his studies, but is also his biggest downfall. He tends to drift away, even at times when he has to pay attention, and he tends to overcomplicate and -analyze things. Apart from that, he is what some people like to call "a little selfish". It's not that he doesn't care about other people or that he ruins the environment he lives in, but he doesn't make an all too active attempt to improve it either. That being said, he would not intentionally hurt anyone or get in anyone's way, especially when it concerns a friend. He is aware of this slight selfishness, but thinks it wouldn't be so bad if people could take care of themselves. He thinks this may be caused by his being alone often, not having any family apart from his fosters, despite his seeing the inhabitans of the Tower as family members, but believes he may have been overanalyzing that as well. Also, having been raised amidst people from all races, he doesn't have any prejudice against any of them and is not burdened by resentment of them. The Tower of Magi, its inhabitants and the red ring he was found with are the things he holds most dear to him and he would risk anything to protects those, even his life, as those are the only certainties he has about his otherwise uncertain past. He has trouble dealing with this uncertainty and often resorts to the sureness of his studies to take his mind off things.

Unique talent: Having studied his entire life, he knows a lot about the world he lives in; from the laws even nature has to abide to what kind of creatures live in this world, athough he's mainly interested in their intelligence, lifestyles abd how to defeat those creatures in combat rather than how their biology works. He's often applauded due to his broad spectrum of interests. Also, in order to help him with his swordfighting, he has learned how to enchant his weapons, a skill only few are interested in learning, for magicians generally prefer to fight with only their magic rather than physical weapons.

Other: This character actually resembles myself in various ways - with a few exceptions of course; for instance, I was raised by my biological parents, unlike Azimuth. Some personality traits were made up as well in order to fit the backstory. As for his name, refer to this picture for its meaning



Also, as is clearly visible on the picture, the zenith is the point in the sky directly above your head, thus higher than any other point.

I added a few snippets of information to the tekst, WR, so feel free to skim through the tekst again.

Get hype.

WR, I sent you a PM, asking whatever the heck I did was okay and all. I won't be able to see your response for twelve hours though, because sleep. 'night all.

I am using the definition of people playing games casually, e.g. not hardcore 100% MLG-pro 1337 gaming. I personally find that definition much more fitting for the word casual. I wouldn't call someone who only plays Angry Birds a "gamer", but "someone who occasionally plays Angry Birds".

EDIT: I guess casual and hardcore are just relative terms. In the speedrunning community, casual basically has the definition I'm using (e.g. "I'm gonna do a casual playthrough of SM64 before I'm speedrunning it"), while in other cases casual may refer to Angry Birds-like games.

You guys seem to have a different definition of a casual gamer than I do. To me, casual gaming means not taking the biggest challenge, but just enjoying the game for what it is, while hardcore gaming is imposing extra challenges on yourself (added difficulty settings or even something like speedrunning). In other words, you can play a game like Zelda casually, but in that case you won't go for all the extra skultullas, heart pieces etc. If you assume my definition, much of what you guys say about casual gamers, e.g. casual gamers don't actually play the game (

But that's because I am somebody who plays them, not a casual gamer.

), sound very elitist indeed ("filthy casuals").

I like to sort game difficulties into four different categories: easy, challenging, difficult and impossible. Easy means I don't have to put any effort into it, challenging means it's a challenge but doable without too many game overs and difficult means it's a real challenge and I'd probably die very often during a playthrough, while impossible means it is too much for my skill level; it would take hours to complete just one level and a playthrough would not be enjoyable anymore at all. On the other hand, an easy difficulty may be enjoyable if I don't like the combat mechanics too much but still want to explore and follow the storyline. The actual in-game difficulties fall into these categories. Which category they fall into depends on the game and your skill level.

Most of the time I play in the challenging difficulty, but if I were to play, say, an FPS - a genre that doesn't appeal too much to me -, I would perhaps consider playing in easy, while I would probably a Zelda-esque game in difficult difficulty.

I think rewards are something that is inherent to gaming. Why do you do that insanely difficult quest that will take you days? To get that amazing sword, of course! I find it interesting indeed how simple compliments could boost a tutorial that much, Blizz.

Back on topic, I don't think everybody who plays on easy does it because they just want to 'win'. One can enjoy the gameplay mechanics, the environment and the game overall without having to be challenged by difficult objectives. Saying that this is because of their lack of mental or physical capabilities or because their baser human desires want them to 'win' sounds only elitist to me. After all, a game can be enjoyable without it being an extremely challenging one, regardless whether this is due to the difficulty settings or not. To the hardcore gamer, it may be less enjoyable, of course, for they like themselves a challenge. But the casual gamer could just relax and enjoy the game without putting too much effort into it. They play the game in order to relax after a hard day of work, without having to think that hard.

Others may just not be patient enough to grind those extra levels needed for beating the boss in that RPG. This was me as a young kid (combined with my limited mental capabilities as a kid). I loved OoT with a passion - perhaps because it was one of the first games I ever played -, but I could not for the life of me find out where I had to go next at some point and I did not have the patience/experience to find it out. That's when I started using a walkthrough. After that, I found it very convenient to use one and kept using it. In fact, I completed the entirety of Great Bay including Great Bay Temple and Ikana valley including Ikana Castle and Stone Tower in MM using a walkthrough. Nowadays, I slightly regret it. However, back then it didn't ruin the immersion for me at all, but that probably has to do with my being a kid. Even nowadays, there are times when I use a walkthrough, but that is mainly when I'm stuck at a point of which I know I should not be stuck at, i.e. when it's not a puzzle or anything similar.

If only I could find my Melee disk again. I'm not good at SSBM - at all - but I would like to get more into it. Perhaps I should finally softmod my Wii. What kind of softmod would you guys suggest?

Protip: Press F11 to go into fullscreen mode.

Can anybody here read moonrunes?

Welcome back! Wow, it's been two years already... Did you enjoy your traveling? Japan, wasn't it?

Sure, I agree that it is wrong that they invade our 'privacy', but to be honest, I don't care if some random American dude who is not interested in my personal affairs and files whatsoever is able to look at my files. Have fun watching my files that are meaningless to you, fool. Basically, I think this should be stopped, but I can't really get angry about it or anything like that.

Welcome to CP .

They're definitely worth a watch if you like the game, though, whether you yourself want to speedrun or not.