A bit about Bernard.
He's a young transplant from the Avoirdupois lands to the east of Triskellian, a place that is much more traditional and feudal than Triskellian. Most people know by now that he's been kicked out by his step father, due to some issue with a vision that Bernard had; Bernard believes that it was S'allumer speaking directly to him, giving him orders and direction for his life, which included some forms of religious abstinence but expressly was not about joining the priesthood. He may be completely nuts. It's hard to say when much of the culture he comes from believes in miracles.
Currently, Bernard has joined the house of Avoirdupois, and works for the Embassy in Triskellian as a chaplain in more of a clergy capacity. He's wondering if he's intended to be a paladin, but he's waiting for more of a sign before doing anything that might jeopardize his standing with his House, which he takes very seriously.
Currently, Bernard has joined the house of Avoirdupois, and works for the Embassy in Triskellian as a chaplain in more of a clergy capacity. He's wondering if he's intended to be a paladin, but he's waiting for more of a sign before doing anything that might jeopardize his standing with his House, which he takes very seriously.
A bit about the World of Calabria.
I'll post more later, and organize it hopefully into a nice format, but for now I'll just toss up some trivia that relates to posts or other things I've said. I'll especially take time to stop and explain when a term or word sounds like it should mean something specific due to RL history, but it actually means something else in this fictional world or might just sound confusing.
For instance, 'clergy' refers to non-ordained church related professions like questors, paladins, monks, etc. Bernard is in a position that falls into one of these gray areas, where he's been given the authority to give confession but not to, say, hold mass.
For instance, 'clergy' refers to non-ordained church related professions like questors, paladins, monks, etc. Bernard is in a position that falls into one of these gray areas, where he's been given the authority to give confession but not to, say, hold mass.
A bit about Anthros.
I'm a roleplayer that cares about context and storytelling. I'll play just about anything so long as I can dig into the character development, background, and storyline and if I get some good RP I'm pretty much content. However, I'm not new to this RP thing, or the world of fantasy, and so I'm well aware of what a lot of people think anthro RP is about. Let's address the dreaded word: "Furries."
I didn't know anything about "Furries" or "Fox Wolfie" or any of those things when I was enjoying Disney's animated Robin Hood, or the Secret of NIMH, or Redwall. I like all sorts of fantasy stories and I was not drawing distinctions based on public perception of quality. Besides, I think in those days, the 'furry' concept hadn't really been born yet. I ran into it over time, back in the 90's, when it was getting something of a reputation for weirdness. I couldn't figure out why that was so, because to me it was all about Redwall or Watership Down, until with a bit of research I could trace it effectively to a sort of fringe culture that had been BASED on anthro stories, and cultivated in conventions which I never attended.
I'm an open minded person though, so I never walked away from a decent RP opportunity online just because it had anthros or the possibility of coming across furry extremists. So over the years I've met a whole lot of perfectly stable, creative, interesting RPers who were interested in what I was interested in - a 'what if' where evolution had taken a different turn, and how that would play out in an alternate universe.
I also ran into people with very interesting fetishes who were there because of that. I don't judge people's fetishes unless they harm other people, so I made friends with some of these folks. Unfortunately, most people with this priority didn't get along with my primary interest in storytelling - they just wanted to have a place to do their fetish thing. This often caused me a bit of exasperation, especially because the truth be told, they were giving everyone a bad name whether that was fair or not. You can definitely find a lot of 'furry culture' that is almost entirely fetish based and that's been a little perplexing to me. But it is what it is.
I have to say that Ironclaw was not set up, whether in PnP form on online, to be a fetishist's playground. It's a well-written, interesting fantasy world with a legitimate and creative tale to tell. The original author clearly had that in mind, and the makers of Ironclaw Online are very much dedicated to this as a priority. They, and others, occasionally worry that there is too much cybering going on in the game, and what it means - but from my perspective of playing many online games, it is actually on par with most non-anthro games in that regard and due to other reasons, and not very reminiscent of the more fetishy furry places I've come across. I can understand the concern though, because of the bad name that anthro worlds have obtained and the desire not to have anyone misunderstand what's going on (as well as the standard concern that people not feel like there's nothing else to do.)
I've found that ICO is lacking much of the 'furry' lingo and 'culture'. Characters refer to each other as people. Men. Women. Not a furrson, and there is no 'yiffing'. For anyone reading this who is a roleplayer, and might be intrigued by portraying a sensible anthro character that is NOT a furry, ICO is where you should be. Go check it out.
I didn't know anything about "Furries" or "Fox Wolfie" or any of those things when I was enjoying Disney's animated Robin Hood, or the Secret of NIMH, or Redwall. I like all sorts of fantasy stories and I was not drawing distinctions based on public perception of quality. Besides, I think in those days, the 'furry' concept hadn't really been born yet. I ran into it over time, back in the 90's, when it was getting something of a reputation for weirdness. I couldn't figure out why that was so, because to me it was all about Redwall or Watership Down, until with a bit of research I could trace it effectively to a sort of fringe culture that had been BASED on anthro stories, and cultivated in conventions which I never attended.
I'm an open minded person though, so I never walked away from a decent RP opportunity online just because it had anthros or the possibility of coming across furry extremists. So over the years I've met a whole lot of perfectly stable, creative, interesting RPers who were interested in what I was interested in - a 'what if' where evolution had taken a different turn, and how that would play out in an alternate universe.
I also ran into people with very interesting fetishes who were there because of that. I don't judge people's fetishes unless they harm other people, so I made friends with some of these folks. Unfortunately, most people with this priority didn't get along with my primary interest in storytelling - they just wanted to have a place to do their fetish thing. This often caused me a bit of exasperation, especially because the truth be told, they were giving everyone a bad name whether that was fair or not. You can definitely find a lot of 'furry culture' that is almost entirely fetish based and that's been a little perplexing to me. But it is what it is.
I have to say that Ironclaw was not set up, whether in PnP form on online, to be a fetishist's playground. It's a well-written, interesting fantasy world with a legitimate and creative tale to tell. The original author clearly had that in mind, and the makers of Ironclaw Online are very much dedicated to this as a priority. They, and others, occasionally worry that there is too much cybering going on in the game, and what it means - but from my perspective of playing many online games, it is actually on par with most non-anthro games in that regard and due to other reasons, and not very reminiscent of the more fetishy furry places I've come across. I can understand the concern though, because of the bad name that anthro worlds have obtained and the desire not to have anyone misunderstand what's going on (as well as the standard concern that people not feel like there's nothing else to do.)
I've found that ICO is lacking much of the 'furry' lingo and 'culture'. Characters refer to each other as people. Men. Women. Not a furrson, and there is no 'yiffing'. For anyone reading this who is a roleplayer, and might be intrigued by portraying a sensible anthro character that is NOT a furry, ICO is where you should be. Go check it out.
