Hello lovely folk,
I’m new to Empire and coming to E1 next year. I’m planning on a Varushkan character, but I’m worried about making sure my character ‘fits’ as best it can into such a close knit community backstory wise. Would anyone have any advice on how best to approach that?
I’m really excited to join you all next year and experience Anvil for the first time 
Hey, welcome to the forum and to the game!
There’s a wide variety of backgrounds across the nation (I say that as a Varushka player! 
), so fitting in will probably be easier than you think. If you can give some details of what you’re considering, I’m sure we can help tweak it if necessary. One thing worth keeping in mind is that PD like them to be clear and somewhat concise, since they need to read hundreds looking for plot hooks and such 
Truth be told, it’s more important what your character does going forward than what’s behind them. It’s useful to know where your vale is and why you’re coming to Anvil, but many of us work out the other bits and pieces once we’re in play. You can also (re)submit your background to PD if and when you make changes!
What kind of character and background were you thinking of?
I’m more than happy with simple! My last character has essentially a 3 line backstory, but that fits her circumstances 
- I also like the idea of being able to grow my character more on the field, rather than give her a set and strict story. So that definitely works for me!
I’m not honestly sure re. type. I’ve played a battlefield medic before, and definitely enjoy the supportive-role style of play (I genuinely love helping people). That being said, I’m relatively new to LARP and eager to get better at fighting and also explore other forms of gameplay (like magic.)
At the moment I’m leaning towards a warden type character and backstory, but am really not set. I have also been struggling with deciding on geographical stuff - Again, I was worried about picking a smaller community as a home vale and then it being weird trying to meet characters who logically would know me if I came from that area (if that makes sense). I was worried I wouldn’t be familiar enough with the geographical world to make a wise choice.
So the geography is definitely not one to overthink - the territories are huge, so it’s pretty easy to not know someone from the next vale over! There are some named locations on the maps, but most people make up their own; there’s no “master copy” of where everyone lives, so you won’t know if you’re butting up against someone until you have those conversations. The majority of players will be cool about it though, “oh, your vale isn’t too far from me, let’s chat!”
It’s worth thinking about the territory itself as they all have slightly different flavours and different amounts of bullshit going on You can find proper details about them on the Wiki.
A warden is a solid choice - they are often fighters, but will also have other skills like physik and magic. The archetypes are mostly just there to help you flavour your character, they don’t have to fully define or curtail you.
Since you’re on Discord, I can send you the link to the Varushka specific server as well if you’d like!
Ah yes please! That would be amazing, and thank you so much for all of the advice. It’s really helpful to know I don’t need to panic too much about accidentally saying I’m from X location, and clashing with other people’s stories.
I’m so glad too re. Warden. I love the idea of being involved in protecting others, whilst also being able to experiment a little with different skills. I imagine I have so much to learn about the intricacies of Empire’s gameplay, it’ll take me time to know what I enjoy the most there
To reinforce, re stepping on other peoples stories:
If your story includes “we are well known as THE best at X in this whole province/nation/Empire”, that’ll be butting into a lot of people.
If your story includes “we have a long and storied history in this province” then you’d need to explain why nobody else has mentioned you so far. And have stories at the ready.
But if your backstory is along the lines of “we live hereish, we don’t do anything too spectacular, we have these interesting but not amazing things…” then that’ll be fine.
An example of integration.
My current Dawnish House is in Axmure county, Semmerholm Province. The group was formed to be about there, which put us in the same locality as three other Houses, past and present. We checked whether anyone else was claiming that exact spot on the map, all cool. Talked to some other groups who’d been so precise, and it was “oh hey, you’re our neighbours from over the hill, we can chat as if that.”
And that’s about it, and far more detail than is ever needed in game.
But what it can amount to is “oh yeah, we live just off that road, south-west side. We’re past the Rylas valley, and around the woods of those Lusignon ****s, and below the mountain pass that the D’Aciers hold. If you get to the Carsenere estates, you’ve gone too far.”
Which does absolutely nothing for the game mechanics, but adds to the feeling of a whole world beyond Anvil 
Given that your character is coming to Anvil, and is thus in the top 1% of the Empire, a few things you might like to help weave you in are:
Thank you so much, it definitely sounds like being vague or general about my home will be helpful for the first time coming. I’m definitely not looking to come in with a heroic or grand backstory - if my character gets to do or be anything significant I’d love to earn that story at Anvil
I’ll also try to catch up on what’s happened over the last couple of years in the broader story, and try to research the map and areas as best I can. Is the wiki always the best place to go for detail? Or are there other places you can go to read up?
Wiki is the best place for details, but can be a bit of a delightful rabbit hole and chaos to find stuff on
My (gently biased) advice is
Let yourself wander about. Nobody knows everything about the game, because 10+ years of PD plot and player action makes the world very lived in…and well, nobody will pop quiz you on what you’ve learned
If you’re looking at battlefield healing, please read the rules around it and combat (but be aware that there’s usually an OC session on Fridays at the space that becomes the Anvil Hospital that covers the basics and usually has a run down on combat healing)
I will do thank you! I appreciate Empire will probably have different rules for healing. I will definitely do some research round the geography and regions, and try and find what feels right. Thank you so much for all the help and advice!