Post by Luker on Nov 5, 2009 2:00:49 GMT -5
Original Character Application
My name is Lexi and I am sixteen years old. I want to join this site because the premise of the roleplay is really unique and something I‘d like to be part of. I have been roleplaying for about four years and I normally post between the the 200-400 word mark. Here is my application:
Full Character Name: Kiista Høegh
Representing Country: Greenland
Age: 4000 years old. However, due to her lack of growth as a nation in recent years she has physically aged to about seventeen years old.
Gender: Female (Gasp!)
Religion: Lutheran, though she still has a deep respect for her old Inuit beliefs.
Sexuality: []
Status: Single
Occupation: Scout; Kiista is quick but physically weak, which made her adopt the role of a Scout. Her main jobs as a Scout are re-con, information recovery and implementing harassment tactics (ie. Leaving smoke bombs, setting up traps and such). She never fights if she can avoid it, but if she has to she uses an old magic-powered hunting rifle.
Strengths: Almost all of Kiista’s strengths have been acquired out of necessity. Unlike most countries, who don’t need to use much effort to get from one place to another, Kiista has to make her way through miles of harsh arctic wilderness to get from one city to the next. To help her travel in relative safety (-and to avoid the risk of getting lost), Kiista learnt how to navigate using clues from her environment and survive off her wildlife, and as the number of settlements expanded, so did her navigation skills. Other skills that have developed due to her environment are her ability to handle extreme artic weather and high pain tolerance, which allow her to survive in, what many others would regard as “brutal” conditions, with relative comfort.
One of her more recently acquired strengths, is her ability to quickly learn other languages. Along with being fluent in her native language of Greenlandic, Kiista can also speak Danish and English fluently. She also knows a fair deal of Icelandic, Norwegian ,German, and Japanese, the first two due to her close historical ties to the countries and the latter two due to a steady flow of tourists from those countries.
Weaknesses: Isolation has often played in favour of Kiista, allowing her to avoid a great deal of problems that come with large populations and urbanization. However, it has had some negative side effects, the main one being that she is very gullible. Almost anyone with a smile and story can waltz into her life and have her believe every word they say. This, along with her obsession with alcohol has caused some problems for her in recent years and something she is trying very hard to fix.
Personality: For the most part, Kiista is a very laid back and passive person, content to change only a few because very few things that are not already integrated into her life truly have any meaning for her. Kiista’s love of her natural surrounds and people are very strong, to the point that she refuses to build roads between her towns because doing so would “upset the natural balance of things.”. Kiista balances out her more passive nature with a healthy appreciation for sport and physical competition, often organizing festivals for playing soccer, wrestling and sledding (or her personal takes on said sports).
But, as with all people, Kiista is not without her faults. The young nation is often very blunt and upfront with people, which can to some come off as being rude or insensitive. This, coupled with her complete lack of social graces is often a strong put-off for many people and nations. Internally, Kiista struggles with a lot of the hidden problems that plague her country underneath it’s carefree surface. She often finds herself struggling with identity, caught between the tension that still lives in the older generations of the Inuit people who want to break ties with Europe and become independent and the Europeans that call her home that want to stay connected to Europe.
Backstory: Kiista herself was not “born” until the Middle Ages, when, a group of Inuit people from Canada travelled to the island and set up the first successful civilization the island had ever had. Though at times things were tough, Kiista’s early people persevered and managed to teach themselves ways to cope with their surroundings and harness the magic found there, under their care Greenland thrived.
Then, everything changed.
It all started with the arrival of a man named Erik the “Red” a Norwegian man who had been exiled from his home country and then from Iceland. With no place to go, Erik had sailed away from Iceland and had bumped into Greenland, Kiista thought he was fascinating and quickly developed a strange friendship with him. After his first visit, Erik went sailed to Iceland and came back with people and magic from their homeland. The Inuit peoples and the Icelandic settlers rarely fought, but when they did the fighting was bitter, hurting Kiista mentally more than physically. Despite, the fighting Greenland was able to grow up to be a strong colony.But, this time of growth was brought to an end by the disappearance of the Icelandic settlers and Erik the Red’s son, who had become their new leader. To his day, not even Kiista knows what happened to them.
For a long time, Greenland was left alone with not contact with anyone. Then, in the year 1721, a strange ship arrived at her shores carrying men from Europe. They were missionaries, Lutheran clergy from the Danish-Norwegian Kingdom, who had come looking for the old Norse colony. When, Kiista explained that they had disappeared, they promptly began converting her and her people to Christianity. After a year or two of living their, the clergy decided it would be a wonderful idea to make Greenland a colony of their Kingdom. Without her fully understanding what a “colony” was, Kiista was declared a colony of the Denmark-Norway Kingdom and attracted immigrants from the mainland. Greenland developed into a trading center (Yes, again. ) and grew to have sisterly affection for both Denmark and Norway. After the bitter split between Norway and Denmark, Kiista was “given” to Denmark by the Royal Courts along with the other colonies, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
The beginning WWII was a very terrifying time for Greenland, for almost the entire war she had no contact with Denmark because of the Nazi takeover and she herself was under constant threat of being seized by the Nazi army. But, upon the arrival of America, Canada and their respective troops, Kiista’s fears almost disappeared and was replaced with a burning desire to help Denmark and the rest of the world. After, the North American army helped drive the Nazi’s out, Kiista set up she set up patrols along her borders to watch for Nazi ships heading towards North America. After the war, Kiista was returned to Denmark, but, America refused to remove his military bases and used Greenland’s geographical position to his advantage during the Cold War, a fact that Kiista was not pleased about. Her disappointment with America turned into outright rage when he tried to “buy” her from Denmark and she has ceased to have relationships outside of trade with him since.
Since the Cold War, Greenland has gone through a lot of change. She now strives to be independent of Denmark and has been granted her own government, created her own flag and has had her “colony” status removed. She spends most of her time now trying to use more Technology so that she doesn’t have to rely to heavily of Magic power.
Sample Post: Kiista removed the binoculars from her eyes, lower them and let fall into place. The young nation made a face that looked like a cross between a scowl and a laugh. She could hear the people around her chuckle at her odd facial expression and despite the gloomy mood that the dark morning had brought, Kiista managed a few giggles as well. After a few seconds, the group fell into silence again. Morning patrols were always like this, nothing ever happened and the weather was terrible so the younger members of the patrol usually got assigned to them.
A strong gust of wind pushed it’s way past the nation and her companions, causing small tufts of snow to swirl into the air and make intricate patterns that promptly fell back down to earth.
“S’gotten cold.” muttered one of the older boys, crossing his arms across his chest and shuddering.
“What does it matter to you, Mikkel. Your always cold.” a few of the people started laughing again, Kiista being one of them. Mikkel grinned sheepishly and said nothing, letting the group fall into silence once again.
Deciding that she should be the one to break the latest period of silence, Kiista cleared her throat and asked, rather loudly “Hey, do you guys want to play a game of football?” a mischievous grin spread across her face as she watched the true meanings of her words sink in.
“You mean…we‘re going to just skip the patrol?” muttered one boy, a look of pure shock in his eyes. “That’s right There‘s no point in continuing to patrol and the other group will be out here in a bit.”
For a few seconds, Kiista and the patrol members stood in utter silence, the patrol members trying to wrap their heads around why on earth their country would want to play a game of football. Then, finally, one of the older members of the patrol announced “I’m up for a game and you should all be too. I mean, if the Motherland wants to play a game of football, who are we to say no.” this statement was met with a loud cheer of approval, making Kiista grin even more.
“Alright, alright enough with the cheering! I‘ll go get us a ball to play with.”
As she turned to leave she added, in a much quieter tone “ -and don’t call me motherland, I’m not old or independent enough to be called that.”
[[ The Luker would like to apologise in advance that she was not able to take on one of the canon characters. She find it hard to stick to the established characters personalities because they don't bend with her views of them. She also apologises for the length of the application.
Lurker would also like to apologise for talking in third person and promises that it won't happen again.]]