Oh Goodness...
Armi technically started as "Armachia" - a Lasombra Vampire in Vampire: The Masquerade that I rolled as a villain when I was new at the whole GMing thing. I say technically because everything about her is completely different, I mostly just derived Armi's name from Armachia's later when I started playing FFXI.
"Armi" as I basically know her today, started there in 2003:
2003, Armi Alliando, FFXI
![[Image: TKsBBwrl.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/TKsBBwrl.jpg)
It was my first time ever playing an MMO and, at the time, I just assumed everyone in MMO's RPed. Why wouldn't they? It's an RPG! I was very naive.
Anyway, at the time, my usual go-to RP characters were all Snarky, Femme Fatale types and I wanted to try something new, so I decided to roll a Yuna-esque character; very sweet, kind of quiet, total badass summoner. But, she was also the daughter of a pirate who died when she was young and she was raised by Galka in Bastok. Her personality was fine-ish - she was quiet and demure, nice and sweet, with a martyr complex that has transferred to each incarnation of her but as I learned about how MMO roleplaying worked, I began to despise her backstory. She was a complete Mary Sue/Special Snowflake and I really only got away with it because at the time I was running the only RP guild on the server (Quetz server what up?). She was basically a super powerful "Chosen one" summoner like Yuna, Heir to a Pirate throne in Norg because her dad was once a top dog Pirate captain, an ambassador between Hume and Galka relations because she was raised by them - the list goes on and on. After about a year, I realized that I had made my character so special she was overshadowing EVERYONE all the time and in MMOs we all kind of have to play on the same field, so I did everything I could to wipe the slate without retconning - taking away her summoner powers, making her a normal ass Red Mage and just becoming a pirate somewhere in Norg. I liked the new version a lot better, but it took so long to fix, by the time I liked her I was three and a half years into the game and was ready to move on. Killed her off and went to WoW.
Lesson Learned: No more special snowflakes! They can actually damage other people's stories rather than make them better and I vowed never to do that again. Kept her nice side and her Martyr tendencies in all future incarnations. If she isn't nice, she isn't Armi.
2007 - Armi Aethertide (WoW)
![[Image: 9bMHITRl.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/9bMHITRl.jpg)
You probably noticed I wasn't on an RP server when this screenshot was taken. Well, that's because until I learned the actual rules on MMO RP, I decided to stay out of it. I didn't really want to make any mistakes like I did with Armi 1.0 and the LS that I ran (We RPed the story in FFXI, I learned thats a no-no in WoW), so we set up the Night Blades with a bunch of our friends on the Boulderfist server while I kept my eye on RP forums. Eventually, all of us decided to move to Emerald Dream so the ones who wanted to rp could. Armi in WoW was much less demure than her FFXI counterpart, I thought I made her too quiet in FFXI so I tried to shift away from that by making her a bit more outspoken. She was secretly against Kael'thas and didn't trust him, but didn't say anything because Silvermoon was downright scary for dissenters. She was still a nice person and had that eternal Martyr streak, but she was strong willed and independant. She was very much a loner and preferred the company of her Lion more than most people and though I played her for 2 years, she never romanced a soul. Some say this is my best incarnation of Armi, but honestly I found her just a touch too bratty and stand offish. However, I kind of liked she was a bit of a loner, so I pretty much kept that in al future incarnations.
Here I came to find a distaste for people who didn't follow lore. There were so many Blood Elf rpers who played High Elves, so many who were half-demons or half-angels, Fallen Angels, Vampires, Ghosts, Besties with Thrall, Immortal Highlanders, etc etc that finding people who just wanted to discuss Silvermoon politics as normal ass Blood Elves was hard to come by. RP outside Silvermoon was better, but for some reason ignoring lore was just completely common practice in WoW.
Lessoned Learned: I liked lore of games and decided after WoW I wanted to find people who also liked Lore in games to rp with. I also learned not to put my character too close to the main story, a lot of rp forums discussed it as something you didn't do and it made sense to me, so I stopped doing it from that point on. Kept Armi's more loner girl side from this incarnation, as I ended up enjoying that Armi lived off screen as well.
2008 - Armi (No last name) - Aion
![[Image: RAtesdwl.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/RAtesdwl.jpg)
Fun Fact: Asmodeans don't have last names unless their nobility.
I talked a little about her before, but this is my least favorite incarnation of Armi. The idea was she was going to be an immortal (As all characters in Aion are) who hated being an immortal and became obsessed with death. She became too morbid really, and eventually became really hard to play. She was morose, but extremely sarcastic and kind of snide. What I did end up liking was that she was a bit awkward in social interaction, having pretty much outcasted herself and so she didn't really understand social norms. I played this completely straight (While in FFXIV I tend to play it for laughs) and it worked well enough. This was my first attempt at a more damaged character, someone with a lot hiding underneath the surface and it had... varied results. She was deeply damaged, broke two mens hearts, was a constant source of drama to all those around her. It was an issue because I overplayed it, trying to push her "depths" in every conversation I had with ANYONE. Eventually I backed myself into a corner and after about 9 months just quit the game.
Lesson Learned: "Hidden Depths" is a term for a reason, and I learned subtly is a lot more effective than shoving it in everyones face all the time, after this, I started being a little more sly with my characters damages, letting people find out about them over time instead of shoving them down people's throats in the first meeting. This has worked so much better for me. I also took her social awkwardness with me to future games, that ending up being something I liked, and dropping the sarcastic nature permanently. Sarcasm isn't Armi. Also purple eyes became a must from here on out! I just fell in love with Armi having violet eyes from then on.
2010 - Armi Duvignau - FFXIV
![[Image: 59VLj4bl.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/59VLj4bl.jpg)
Same Armi, before some racial Retconning. 1.0's Armi was a priestess of Nymeia and an extremely devout one at that. She believed that free will was a complete myth and everything we did was the will of the Twelve. She wasn't a person in her mind, she was a vessel. Because of how unshakable her faith was, she didn't have many friends - only used to studying scripture or praying - so she didn't understand social norms, but she didn't mind that. She was fine being alone. She was alright to play in 1.0, but she was extremely restrictive, since she was so devout and didn't really want or need friends she mostly kept to herself and I could only pull her out when it made sense. This made her awkward to play - while she had all the traits I liked (Nice, Awkward, Martyr Complex, kind of a loner) her backstory made her less fluid and more like a rock. I enjoyed her, but couldn't really bring her out as much as I wanted to, making Loki my main so I could be more open. Her 1.0 story made for a really good backstory, but as a current story it was just too hard to RP.
Lesson Learned: Restricting your own character is kind of a downer, I decided to try to find ways to keep them open no matter the backstory.
2011 - Armi Aethertide - Star Wars: The Old Republic
![[Image: yACVYh3l.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/yACVYh3l.jpg)
I think I was really starting to find Armi's stride here, though honestly the character will never be perfect. I decided to make Armi a force user who was for the Republic, but against the Jedi which made her a Grey Jedi but for fun I made her a bit dark sided. This caused a lot of interesting interaction with her with Jedi since they were either trying to get her to join the Jedi Order or just trying to kill her. She was extremely guarded because of it, but was generally very nice - she just didn't like talking about herself just in case. She was quite serious here, not really getting jokes (Which I ended up really liking) and not really understanding how to unwind. Watching her at a bar was unintentionally hilarious. I think though, I made her too serious, really. Like the Armi Aethertide before her, she never romances anyone, she was just too serious for that nonsense.
Lesson Learned: I didn't really like how serious Armi had gotten through the different incarnations, but I also wasn't really sure I could change that and pull it off well enough.
2013 - Armi Alliando - FFXIV: ARR
And here we are now. I took all of her backstory from 1.0 and kept it, only changing her race (and therefore last name) because I ended up not liking the Elezen animations in Beta. However, I turned it into a complete backstory, after Carteneau she left the Priesthood and dedicated herself to finding out who SHE was. I was going to play Armi completely straight like previous incarnations, but right at the last minute (Really, right as I was going to rp with her in game the first time) I decided to make her a goofball. She's shy (Something new, I never really rolled shy before), awkward, kind of a Martyr, Talks to plants like their people, doesn't understand social norms, is completely nice and sweet, genuine to a fault, has a lot of damage from things in her past, kind of loner. She's everything I've been building up to in past games and, so far, she's my favorite incarnation. This isn't to say she's done, I already have ideas for the next Armi in any other MMOs I play to refine her even more.
It's been a long strange trip.
Armi technically started as "Armachia" - a Lasombra Vampire in Vampire: The Masquerade that I rolled as a villain when I was new at the whole GMing thing. I say technically because everything about her is completely different, I mostly just derived Armi's name from Armachia's later when I started playing FFXI.
"Armi" as I basically know her today, started there in 2003:
2003, Armi Alliando, FFXI
It was my first time ever playing an MMO and, at the time, I just assumed everyone in MMO's RPed. Why wouldn't they? It's an RPG! I was very naive.
Anyway, at the time, my usual go-to RP characters were all Snarky, Femme Fatale types and I wanted to try something new, so I decided to roll a Yuna-esque character; very sweet, kind of quiet, total badass summoner. But, she was also the daughter of a pirate who died when she was young and she was raised by Galka in Bastok. Her personality was fine-ish - she was quiet and demure, nice and sweet, with a martyr complex that has transferred to each incarnation of her but as I learned about how MMO roleplaying worked, I began to despise her backstory. She was a complete Mary Sue/Special Snowflake and I really only got away with it because at the time I was running the only RP guild on the server (Quetz server what up?). She was basically a super powerful "Chosen one" summoner like Yuna, Heir to a Pirate throne in Norg because her dad was once a top dog Pirate captain, an ambassador between Hume and Galka relations because she was raised by them - the list goes on and on. After about a year, I realized that I had made my character so special she was overshadowing EVERYONE all the time and in MMOs we all kind of have to play on the same field, so I did everything I could to wipe the slate without retconning - taking away her summoner powers, making her a normal ass Red Mage and just becoming a pirate somewhere in Norg. I liked the new version a lot better, but it took so long to fix, by the time I liked her I was three and a half years into the game and was ready to move on. Killed her off and went to WoW.
Lesson Learned: No more special snowflakes! They can actually damage other people's stories rather than make them better and I vowed never to do that again. Kept her nice side and her Martyr tendencies in all future incarnations. If she isn't nice, she isn't Armi.
2007 - Armi Aethertide (WoW)
You probably noticed I wasn't on an RP server when this screenshot was taken. Well, that's because until I learned the actual rules on MMO RP, I decided to stay out of it. I didn't really want to make any mistakes like I did with Armi 1.0 and the LS that I ran (We RPed the story in FFXI, I learned thats a no-no in WoW), so we set up the Night Blades with a bunch of our friends on the Boulderfist server while I kept my eye on RP forums. Eventually, all of us decided to move to Emerald Dream so the ones who wanted to rp could. Armi in WoW was much less demure than her FFXI counterpart, I thought I made her too quiet in FFXI so I tried to shift away from that by making her a bit more outspoken. She was secretly against Kael'thas and didn't trust him, but didn't say anything because Silvermoon was downright scary for dissenters. She was still a nice person and had that eternal Martyr streak, but she was strong willed and independant. She was very much a loner and preferred the company of her Lion more than most people and though I played her for 2 years, she never romanced a soul. Some say this is my best incarnation of Armi, but honestly I found her just a touch too bratty and stand offish. However, I kind of liked she was a bit of a loner, so I pretty much kept that in al future incarnations.
Here I came to find a distaste for people who didn't follow lore. There were so many Blood Elf rpers who played High Elves, so many who were half-demons or half-angels, Fallen Angels, Vampires, Ghosts, Besties with Thrall, Immortal Highlanders, etc etc that finding people who just wanted to discuss Silvermoon politics as normal ass Blood Elves was hard to come by. RP outside Silvermoon was better, but for some reason ignoring lore was just completely common practice in WoW.
Lessoned Learned: I liked lore of games and decided after WoW I wanted to find people who also liked Lore in games to rp with. I also learned not to put my character too close to the main story, a lot of rp forums discussed it as something you didn't do and it made sense to me, so I stopped doing it from that point on. Kept Armi's more loner girl side from this incarnation, as I ended up enjoying that Armi lived off screen as well.
2008 - Armi (No last name) - Aion
Fun Fact: Asmodeans don't have last names unless their nobility.
I talked a little about her before, but this is my least favorite incarnation of Armi. The idea was she was going to be an immortal (As all characters in Aion are) who hated being an immortal and became obsessed with death. She became too morbid really, and eventually became really hard to play. She was morose, but extremely sarcastic and kind of snide. What I did end up liking was that she was a bit awkward in social interaction, having pretty much outcasted herself and so she didn't really understand social norms. I played this completely straight (While in FFXIV I tend to play it for laughs) and it worked well enough. This was my first attempt at a more damaged character, someone with a lot hiding underneath the surface and it had... varied results. She was deeply damaged, broke two mens hearts, was a constant source of drama to all those around her. It was an issue because I overplayed it, trying to push her "depths" in every conversation I had with ANYONE. Eventually I backed myself into a corner and after about 9 months just quit the game.
Lesson Learned: "Hidden Depths" is a term for a reason, and I learned subtly is a lot more effective than shoving it in everyones face all the time, after this, I started being a little more sly with my characters damages, letting people find out about them over time instead of shoving them down people's throats in the first meeting. This has worked so much better for me. I also took her social awkwardness with me to future games, that ending up being something I liked, and dropping the sarcastic nature permanently. Sarcasm isn't Armi. Also purple eyes became a must from here on out! I just fell in love with Armi having violet eyes from then on.
2010 - Armi Duvignau - FFXIV
Same Armi, before some racial Retconning. 1.0's Armi was a priestess of Nymeia and an extremely devout one at that. She believed that free will was a complete myth and everything we did was the will of the Twelve. She wasn't a person in her mind, she was a vessel. Because of how unshakable her faith was, she didn't have many friends - only used to studying scripture or praying - so she didn't understand social norms, but she didn't mind that. She was fine being alone. She was alright to play in 1.0, but she was extremely restrictive, since she was so devout and didn't really want or need friends she mostly kept to herself and I could only pull her out when it made sense. This made her awkward to play - while she had all the traits I liked (Nice, Awkward, Martyr Complex, kind of a loner) her backstory made her less fluid and more like a rock. I enjoyed her, but couldn't really bring her out as much as I wanted to, making Loki my main so I could be more open. Her 1.0 story made for a really good backstory, but as a current story it was just too hard to RP.
Lesson Learned: Restricting your own character is kind of a downer, I decided to try to find ways to keep them open no matter the backstory.
2011 - Armi Aethertide - Star Wars: The Old Republic
I think I was really starting to find Armi's stride here, though honestly the character will never be perfect. I decided to make Armi a force user who was for the Republic, but against the Jedi which made her a Grey Jedi but for fun I made her a bit dark sided. This caused a lot of interesting interaction with her with Jedi since they were either trying to get her to join the Jedi Order or just trying to kill her. She was extremely guarded because of it, but was generally very nice - she just didn't like talking about herself just in case. She was quite serious here, not really getting jokes (Which I ended up really liking) and not really understanding how to unwind. Watching her at a bar was unintentionally hilarious. I think though, I made her too serious, really. Like the Armi Aethertide before her, she never romances anyone, she was just too serious for that nonsense.
Lesson Learned: I didn't really like how serious Armi had gotten through the different incarnations, but I also wasn't really sure I could change that and pull it off well enough.
2013 - Armi Alliando - FFXIV: ARR
And here we are now. I took all of her backstory from 1.0 and kept it, only changing her race (and therefore last name) because I ended up not liking the Elezen animations in Beta. However, I turned it into a complete backstory, after Carteneau she left the Priesthood and dedicated herself to finding out who SHE was. I was going to play Armi completely straight like previous incarnations, but right at the last minute (Really, right as I was going to rp with her in game the first time) I decided to make her a goofball. She's shy (Something new, I never really rolled shy before), awkward, kind of a Martyr, Talks to plants like their people, doesn't understand social norms, is completely nice and sweet, genuine to a fault, has a lot of damage from things in her past, kind of loner. She's everything I've been building up to in past games and, so far, she's my favorite incarnation. This isn't to say she's done, I already have ideas for the next Armi in any other MMOs I play to refine her even more.
It's been a long strange trip.
![[Image: tumblr_n92fndN0EH1rujdn8o1_500.gif]](https://33.media.tumblr.com/449e130ac31106ec8aeda3d0f121d76b/tumblr_n92fndN0EH1rujdn8o1_500.gif)
