Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ember Vykos]

I can't really speak much for Ember since I never did really sort her background out properly, but without the Legion I think Simca would still be pretty much who she is turning out to be. She's not loyal to Mordus because one day she up and thought "screw the fed I'm gonna go be a merc" shes loyal because that's where she was born. If you take it away then she is still her. True a good chunk of her background will be missing and given that in game she is Gallente her motivations and actions may seem a bit out of place, but its still the same character.

I'm making her loyal to a faction partly because it is an easy button, but also I think that its easier to identify with people and open up IC avenues to explore on both sides. I dont think she would immediately view Seri or any other Fed loyalist as an enemy right off the bat. She would probably view them as someone she is being paid to shoot, but that doesnt mean she wouldnt be civil with them if they met in a bar.

[GoGo Yubari]

I've never had a factional identity play a huge role in my character and those "factions" that have been instrumental have at least partly been of my own design. I'm not saying that to sound all cool like, because I've many times thought about either aligning more tightly with a faction or creating another character who is more firmly embedded in that way. There's a certain appealing simplicity in that.

GoGo was aligned with the Blood Raiders, but it happened in-game and it ended in-game. Turned into some nice drama for the character. The Intaki separatist angle was created out a slight dissatisfaction with the Federation PF and wanting to forge something new out of that while still remaining true to my Intaki character. In a way that has kind of been left behind in my play as well, though it certainly has a strong bearing on my character still. That whole thing is being pushed and pursued by other players and it's great.

I think it's quite natural for a privateer/pirate/freelancer type of character to be less defined by factional loyalties and GoGo is certainly that. But it's definitely harder to try to forge a place for yourself in the community that way, unless you're content just being around and hanging out.

Of course, now that I'm back after a long break, I do feel naturally a bit disconnected from the current community and thinking of directions to go. Faction alignment is a great way to connect. Whether a faction will feature crucially for me, I'm still a bit unsure.

[Shintoko Akahoshi]

What GoGo said.

Shin has run through a bunch of different factions over time. She went from Gallente nationalist to old-school JF anarchist to Caldari Patriot to Minmatar freedom fighter (several times) to Angel, with forays into Sani Sabik. This isn't particularly uncommon in Eve, you get lots of people who do this as they meander from corp to corp. When I started seriously RPing her, I took the trouble to create a background for her that provides both an anchor (her clade*) and an explanation for the factional shifts she's gone through (it typically always comes down to her clade). It's also managed to readily explain her descent into blue and orange morality, as her loyalty is always more with her clade than anyone else.

So, if you took away these factions, she'd still be standing there. If you took away her clade, however, you'd be taking away a big part of what makes her Shin. But I don't see that as any different than removing any character's family.

*See Shin's background for details of what this means. In a nutshell, it's her family.

[Ghost Hunter]

Ghost is by far almost entirely defined by his factional loyalty, rather than anything uniqueness (arguably).

This is probably a consequence of how I built myself and him, as player/character, in terms of our styles. I love the Sansha faction more than any other, and I did my best to build Ghost in the way that is part of my understanding of how Sansha are. Consequentially, if I took him out of the Sansha faction, there is little character to him other than his incredibly analytical personality. His motives, ideals, and behavior are all governed by an overall purpose of furthering the Nation.

Granted, people probably think there's a lot of character to him, but much of his personality is interchangeable with his loyalty to the Nation. I'm hard pressed to envision him as the Well Intentioned Extremist he is outside of the Sansha.

[spoiler]c-c-combo breaker[/spoiler]

[Esna Pitoojee]

Esna's pretty defined by the Empire at the moment, but only because he sees it as the most effective means to the end he is trying to reach. Should the Empire really, really turn away from that, he would drop it - mind you, he'd probably be a fairly religious person still, but it wouldn't be for the Empire, but rather for the Greater Good.

[Graanvlokkie]

... But yeah, none of my characters are built around their faction. The characters might gravitate towards a given faction after they've developed, not the other way around.

^^ This.

Edit to actually contribute to the thread:
This worked out well for my character. When I started I didn't know anything about the different factions or the RP. Graanvlokkie started as a shinny eyed recruit fresh out of capsuleer school, and his character and personality has been shaped by his in game goals and actions.

[Gottii]

I pretty much designed Gottii to be built around the Minmatar faction.  IMHO, you pretty much have to, if you really want to RP being part of a clannish, tribal society, your identity should be build around the group and the culture.  Without his Minmatar-ness, he would probably be a shell, and Im pretty happy with that, since thats what I was aiming for.

[Driselle]

Dris was my first character, and as such I had no idea what I was getting into with regards to the matari tribal thing. So I made her grow up in a remote colony where there WASN'T a tribe that she could call her own. Her parents had their own customs, of course, but then again so did every family in the colony, and they were ALL different, so there was no cohesive unit to look to for answers.

Where this would come into play now is that she's adopted Syn's tribe as her own, and if that were to fall apart Dris wouldn't necessarily be affected, but Syn WOULD, and THAT would cause some definite issues. However standing on her own, and not regarding the issues with her mate, the change in faction wouldn't cause her any undue stress. Mourn the loss of her races' culture, yes. But her day-to-day activities wouldn't change (the ore must flow).

As far as the other characters I've got? One wouldn't care, another would be happy, and the last would...well... I guess it depends on what you call 'faction'. Does a player-created faction still count as a faction? Because if that went, and it was the sole reason that the character existed, then yeah, I think they'd have a hard time surviving on their own.

[Makkal]

Makkal's faction is the Kingdom, which includes:

1) Her family
2) Her religion
3) Her cultural background and viewpoint

If you removed the Kingdom from Makkal, she'd be a hollowed out shell of a person. Makkal raised in the Republic or the Federation would look almost nothing like the current character. Makkal raised in the State would likely be similar but far more ruthless, cruel, and amoral. Makkal raised in the Empire would likely actively support the Reclaiming, as well as being more narrow-minded, militant, and sure of herself.

EVE is a game about PvP and on-upping each other and, from my experience, RP is just another avenue to do so. If we are from differing factions, we are automatically of a hostile disposition to each other. It does not matter how much fiction we have behind our character, or supporting our characters, people will be reluctant to "accept" these pieces, as it reduces the character from being anything but a target. This is from my own perspective anyway.

This is so far from my experience of RPing in EVE that I'm bewildered people think this way.

Hearing this mindset does explain a number of things though.

[Steffanie Saissore]

Having only played EVE for one month so far, I would like to think that Steff stands apart from factional loyalties.  Now, most of this has to do with the fact that I know next to nothing about the EVE universe other than the little I looked at several years ago and what some friends had mentioned in passing.

When I first built Steff, I admit I went Gallente because I understand and could get behind personal freedom for all and I also liked the hedonistic aspect as well.  So, going in, was pretty much looking at playing a "let's party all night long and free all the oppressed people because we should" character.

The first day or so, I pretty much stuck to myself, going through the tutorial and puttering about with the different missions trying to get a feel for the game.  Then I got pulled into the Summit and from there, and I still am not sure the hows behind it, I got pulled into another channel and invited to an in-game party...

I was struck by the richness of RP I was seeing and also found that I really couldn't play a simple character.  It wasn't so much being challenged for lack of knowledge of the setting; I turned that around and used it as part of the character's background.  I felt challenged to be something more than just 'another Gallente' (whatever that really is) and have, I hope, built a character that can stand apart from nation or faction.

[Vincent Pryce]

[Ché Biko]

Ché isn't loyal to any faction.
How much would be left of him if that changed? Depends on who he becomes loyal to, I guess.

[Seriphyn]

Hey, now, no fair. I wrote that 'mindset' two years ago...none of us hold static opinions...

[Makkal]

Hey, now, no fair. I wrote that 'mindset' two years ago...none of us hold static opinions...

It still explains behaviors I've seen.

[Aria Jenneth]

Eve's competitiveness did come through in the way I have structured Aria, but her faction loyalty informs more than defines her. She's served many masters, but never really departed from her sense of herself as an Achur even if she's never been a particularly stellar example.