Before you jump into character creation, you need to be aware of the overall do's and don'ts.
The first character you create must be aged young adult or older. This is simply so that your application is not hurt by any possible inability to find a current member willing to have their character act as a guardian.
Your first character must also be decidedly ordinary. You may not use any restricted traits on your first character. Restricted traits are known as snowflake traits. This is to level the playing field for all during group openings, and make sure that everyone is willing and able to play a character who doesn't lean entirely on being physically special or unique in some way.
Svajone is unique in that, until Malaysia broke off with her followers and formed the Kol, the entire pack lived as one (commonly referred to colloquially as "the united pack"). There have not been any other packs previous to this, and wolves cannot have lived in packs of players' own creation (pack being defined as a group of wolves who operate under their own laws and rules and governed by their own leader). Prior to the formation of the Kol, all wolves were ruled by the Alpha Khonsu, and after his passing, the Alpha Osirus.
Staff monitor the overall populations of each pack and may occasionally offer character creation discounts to encourage character creation in the less populated factions. We do this in lieu of a cap or restriction. These discounts will be announced in journals, on the discord server, and also temporarily added to the shop for the duration of the promotional offer.
Characters should be your own original characters. We do not accept fan characters. While taking inspiration from popular culture or well known characters is okay, it is not permitted to create an exact clone of an existing character, using their name, design/colours, personality all at once. It would be okay for me to make a character loosely inspired by Scar from the Lion King and his devious personality, but it would not be ok for me to then name that character Scar, design him to look exactly like Scar, or so on. That is literally just making Scar as a wolf. Svajone is an intermediate level group and we expect that players will bring their own original ideas to the setting.
It is the responsibility of the player to ensure that their character fits into our setting and world. You don't need to detail their reaction to every section of the group history, but you should take care to make a character which is in keeping with in game culture. There's lots of extra reading available on this website for you to fully immerse yourself in our world!
A key difference between Svajone and other ARPGs focused on canid species, is that lone wolves are frowned upon in island culture. Prior to the events of our game opening, all wolves were united as one pack, and were so for centuries. Lone wolves were not only unheard of, they were impossible. Lifetimes of learned behaviour leaves the wolves of Svajone deeply connected to pack lifestyles. The pack life is the only life they know.
A common loophole is writing a character which technically lived among a pack, but at the fringes as a hermit and never interacting with anyone. In the context of this world, this is unrealistic - it is impossible for your character to live among, contribute to and benefit from a pack society and also be completely unknown to them. Character applications to this effect will be challenged and required to make changes.
Character histories which include being born to loner parents or living as a loner are not permitted on any new characters.
Newly created characters cannot make any references to lone wolves in their history. They cannot be born as a loner, born from loner parents (one or both), cannot have spent any period of time living as a loner, or encountered a lone wolf at any point in their story. Keep in mind our group lore - lone wolves are almost unheard of in Svajone, as historically all the wolves in the island were joined together in one pack. As the plot has developed and the island wolves further divided, they have continued to remain in traditional pack structures, as this is safe and familiar to them. Striking out alone is considered both dangerous and strange in island wolf culture.
Returning retired characters are allowed to make reference to living as a loner, if it is the explanation for their absence from canon. There are some rules and stipulations regarding this, as follows:
To avoid loophole attempts in pursuit of shiny loner sticker, character must be in retirement for a minimum of 9 months before returning.
If you have multiple retired characters you wish to return, you cannot do so in succession. You must wait 6 months between each returning retiree.
Time spent in retirement must be completely alone. You cannot retroactively claim to have interacted with active characters, nor can you go back and RP things set during their time as a loner. You also cannot claim to have been present at any significant events or main plot points that have occurred during the period of retirement. The permission to use living as a lone wolf is given only to explain their absence and is NOT a way to loophole roleplaying a lone wolf. Abuse of this can result in expulsion from the group.
Wolves in Svajone are aware of human existence, and so you are permitted to mention them in roleplay. There are also a number of ancient ruins around the island. However, all current era wolves are too young to recall when the island was fully populated with humans. Only wolves of a certain age will have witnessed the landing of Soren Svajone's ship. As such, humans should still be considered mysterious beings, and your wolf should not have intimate knowledge of their habits or behaviours. The extent to which your wolf saw the humans before they were sacrificed depends on you and your character's affiliation.
All wolves will have been born on the island, but their family and history is up to you. Use the TIMELINE to check your story aligns with the important events of the group history. You don't need to mention every historical event, you can just tell us about your character's inner circle if you like! But if you do choose to mention historical events, use the timeline to help make sure you've got things in the right chronological order. The timeline will also help you to pinpoint a particular age for your wolf, if you wish to use specifics.
Svajone asks members to steer away from name drops of mental illness or disabilities. It may be triggering or upsetting for people to see a legitimate mental illness found in humans that critically alters their quality of life, being used to make a wolf RPG character "more interesting". We believe that most - if not all - of the effects that players wish to portray can be done so without a full diagnosis of the mental ailment. There is no definitive list of illnesses or disabilities, we simply ask you to exercise good judgement, and staff will check any new applications to this effect. We also remind players that mental disorders should be not be trivialised or equated directly and only to villainy, as this perpetuates harmful stereotypes.
Pureblood is a special character perk that can be purchased with game currency. Restocks of this perk are limited, but if you manage to acquire a slot, you must be aware of the lore and restrictions.
Pureblood lore dictates that, due to the level of dilution of blood over centuries of breeding, the Pureblood gene can skip generations. A Pureblood father could have no Pureblooded children, but those children could have Pureblooded children of their own! Similarly, siblings of the same litter could vary in blood status. Understandably, this could lead to confusion. Some characters might believe they are Pureblooded, but they're not! Others might not think they are, but turn out to be!
In game, an ancient mirror was discovered within the temple of Remiel, which is able to reveal the status of Purebloods. Ordinary wolves will look in their mirror and see their own reflection. Pureblooded wolves will look in the mirror and see the reflection of the Elder wolf from whom they are descended. This is the only way to identify a Pureblood with certainty and must be done in-character. Kol characters will obviously be able to do this easily (with permission from the Alva). At the time of writing, wolves of the other packs do not know the mirror exists.
Purebloods can be added to existing characters, unless they have already looked in the Remiel mirror in-game and been confirmed as ordinary blood status. This cannot be backtracked.
All Purebloods in the same in-game family must all be related to the same Elder. If an existing Pureblood is descended from Khepera, and you'd like to make their sister a Pureblood too, that sister must also be descended from Khepera.