You are on the streets of this new city for the first time. Your eyes gaze at the surrounding structures and the bustle of people. A passing Klyros stops as he notices your travel-dusty clothing. He smiles and bows.
"Greetings, newcomer! Welcome to our fine city. You will not find a better place in the entire realm. Let me treat you to one of our best local brews in the tavern and show you around. Where do you hail from, friend?"
You pause for a moment before giving your introduction and history you spent hours thinking up. "Well met! I will accept your offer, though I doubt your best drink can compare with the ales of Sinnitaria. Lead the way."
The Klyros nods and asks, "I don't think I have heard of that city before. What level is it on?"
You notice the odd look on the Klyros' face as you answer. "It is far past the Stone Labyrinths and through a portal to my homeworld. The journey took many months, but I had to come see the wonder that is Yliakum. It is not half of..." You trail off as you notice the Klyros slowly backing away from you.
"Nevermind, sir..." the Klyros says, "I think I will have that drink on my own."
***
What went wrong? The answer to: "Where are you from?" One often made mistake stems from that question. In an effort to create interesting and unique characters, it is very tempting to make them come from some exotic world or mysterious city no one has ever seen before, with an equally exotic and mysterious history. Even the best writers and roleplayers will find this background ill received by other players, and may find themselves in situations like the one above.
You can be creative in writing about where your character came from, but you must do it within certain bounds and with some courtesy to other players.
1- Don't try to outdo other players or the Setting of PlaneShift. Make your story and home interesting, but keep it within reason. It puts other players in an awkward situation if they have to try to either accept your outlandish claims, see your character as insane, or explain out of character why you could not have come from that place. It is not pleasant in any case.
2- Your character was born in Yliakum. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. There are no unapproved distant kingdoms beyond the Stone Labyrinths or on the surface. No character has been to the surface (if indeed there is a surface). There are no current portals to or from other worlds. There are no mysterious hidden cities that no one has ever heard of before.
3- ALL race (Kran and Lemur aside) homelands and histories are lost to the past, and have been so for hundreds of years. No character is old enough to have come through the portals or remember why there is no record of what happened to the homelands. There is an In-Character reason for that, and it is not open for debate. Kadiakos is also off limits as a birthplace. As far as all current characters go, there is only Yliakum.
4- Your character was not born in a city that was destroyed in a great race war. That is final.
5- Yliakum is not relatively large. Any point can be reached in a matter of days.
6- No part of Yliakum allows slavery.
7- That does not mean you have to settle for mundane if you do not wish. As you have read in Character Creation, there have been many good and bad happenings in the past. Creatures or bandits could have attacked your village (but do not make yourself the only cliché survivor). Perhaps you were born in the Stone Labyrinths or other interesting (existing) place, such as the Temple of Laanx. There is a lot of leeway in what you can do as long as you use a bit of common sense.
So, go forth with your new character and make your imprint on the (existing) world.
