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[Seriphyn]

Not sure if this is elsewhere, but I figured it might be interesting to see why, both OOC and IC, we play our character's as loyalists, whether to a pirate or empire faction.

Firstly, I myself do not RP for acceptance, adoration or "everyone loves me" roleplay. I seek to develop a deep character with multiple reasons for their behaviour, and multiple personalities depending on what they respond to. After 2 years of RPing Seriphyn, I am proud to say he is a highly developed character. Those of you who will protest will probably take their primary source from his public RP, which is exactly my point, as it is very different from what occurs in the private RP I do. He is not designed to get along with everyone. Even I don't know him sometimes.

Now, IC, Seriphyn spend 11 years old and onwards in a Matari enclave on Gallente Prime. He has grown up to be a very aggressive individual who controls things through violence and rage. At the same time, he is a very compassionate individual with a strong sense of what is right to him (oh, I'm sure all our characters have that aspect, right?) and will not tolerate any deviations from his concept of justice. Of course, he has to be a compassionate individual by default in order to raise Anette. Unfortunately, his compassion gets a backseat in most things. One of the prime reasons he was chosen to be a capsuleer was his destructive and violent nature, being able to direct these energies towards an enemy of the Federation. Seriphyn does not want to see the State burn the same way a former slave would want that of the Empire. His percieved fascism to the Caldari is only a result of him having to direct his aggression towards it. If they weren't at war with the State, that energy will easily be directed towards the Angel Cartel or Serpentis. If he did not have anything to direct his hate towards, he would very much be in prison.

Of course, he could be fighting Nation, whom he REALLY wants to see eradicated beyond all rational logic. However, his power in the FDU means that the only real damage in any meaningful way is to the State (and he wants to cause damage, to satisfy his aggression). Ratting endlessly against Nation just won't do it. His loyalty to the Federation is another side of the coin. Seriphyn is blue collar and working class at heart, but he has learnt to be intelligent as a capsuleer. Part of this intelligence is realizing that the Federation is and never will be the good guys, but that doesn't mean to him that the people who live in it and the culture/society that has developed is not innocent and worth fighting for. By serving the Federation, Seriphyn believes that he is justifying his violent behaviour. He is not murdering hundreds and thousands for his own gain or for his own wealth. Therefore, by believing that he is fighting to protect the Federation's values, outletting his aggression, his existence becomes something. Without it, he really would see himself as nothing.

His egoism is, in all its entirerity, false. He behaves in an egoistic fashion to provoke violence and hate from other capsuleers, making them hate him so, once again, his treatment of them is justified. This includes his professional, PR behaviour, by spouting flowery, bullshit language (which he knows is bullshit), it would just aggravate his enemies, which is exactly what he wants. Having his very existence as offensive to others delights him, as it only gives righteousness to his aggression even more. As for his treatment of women, well, the sex is to satisfy his esteem and confidence, and keep his mood in check. He does, of course, very often get close with the opposite sex without seeking hay rolls, at which point, in typical blue collar fashion, he will violently protect as opposed to being more discerning and devising more cunning ways to defend them. That pretty much applies to anything. Some capsuleers and powerful individuals will use guile and intelligence to get what they want. Seriphyn'll just punch ya instead.

But yeah, his "factional RP" extends far far more deeper than just..well, standard faction RP...which is interesting, because what I have just outlined is the "deep side" of RP, while faction stuff tends to be the easy, lite stuff...

[Myrhial Arkenath]

Angel loyalism came gradually for me. There really wasn't much representation and being promoted to director and later on CEO gave me the position to fill a niche and contribute to the RP community with something "new".

It's not just filling that which did it for me, but also because it is a faction that a caldari tired of the state corruption fits into. Is it any cleaner? Certainly not, but at least they're honest about what they do, and that is what Myrhial likes about it. In her mind it somehow contains the bits about the Caldari as a whole, and even Achur, that she wants to identify herself with. It is a bit of a flawed reasoning too, Jude for example has pointed out OOCly how her put Naraka in stasis to save face can in fact be misunderstood by the outside world, and while I OOCly agree with that she feels this was the Caldari thing to do and thus the right thing to do and that everyone will understand it and if they don't then they are probably not Caldari. Yep, despite loyal to the faction that recruits from all races she's a bit of a xenophobe still. Not sure if she will ever get rid of that really, she has eased up a little in that already though. Is what you get with contrasting characters like Kimochi around, offering pole dancing lessons >_>  

As a player the cartel is also my favorite faction. It does not necessarily stroke with my own opinions, and I could roleplay any other pirate faction, but I still like them the best. Their methodology, and lets not forget the pretty ships, and then the whole Jovian tech rumors.

Loyalism also forms a solid foundation for a character. It provides you with a set of answers to questions, and then you can build upon it and eventually even create your own take on things, like the Naraka - Veto collaboration for example. I'm seeing a variety of Cartel initiatives float around these days and I hope other factions who do not yet have this will also get a diversity in activities united under a banner of loyalism.

[Ghost Hunter]

Even as a complete social degenerate (read 12 years old), I've liked the concept of Sansha's Nation. When my BoB days were officially over and I had nowhere else to go as a driving force, I decided to get into the RP/Sansha scene. This led to my spawning of TS-F, which led me into Naqam as I found consolidating our forces to be the most sensible action. That's where I mark my beginning as an RPer in EVE, when I created TS-F.

When confronted with how I wanted to take Ghost IC, I decided I would be completely loyal. I didn't like the thought of shifting allegiances or other types of political intrigue for my primary character. So, I built him from the ground up to be Sansha before, during and after. Now a couple years into it he's so damn deeply entrenched entertaining the idea of being loyal to anything else is a complete joke to me lol

[orange]

OOC: First played Eve without looking for RP.  I got interested when CAIN got in the news over the Aurora Brothers of Freedom arc.  I got into it and enjoy it.

IC: Dex wants to build a better State, he is in pursuit of the ideal of the State.

[Havohej]

Oh, a good thread to post my little RP secret in:

Havohej is neither patriotic, loyal to the Minmatar as a race, nor idealistic.

[Zuzanna Alondra]

Aren't we the messed up corp from hell eh?

First - my confession - Zu isn't my main in the way most you think of mains.

My main is fiercely loyal to the only family she got.  She don't care what she's doing - she'll go full pirate and give a shit less if she was asked to.  She draws the line at owning slaves.

Zu - let's say she cracked five years ago and truly believes someone dear to her was reborn as a matari and half cracked with grief doesn't know why she does half of what she does.  She's just trying to be a good mommy by killing the bad people that might hurt her baby boy...  us crazy folks stick together.

[Kazzzi]

Kazzzi does a lotta drugs...

Actually, Kazzzi has claimed several different reasons for betraying the Amarr Empire, but they have all been blatant lies. Only his closest friends know the truth.

[Kaleigh Doyle]

I can't really speak as someone who plays a loyalist, because no character I've ever made has ever been blindly loyal to a government. Perhaps its just not in my persona as a player, or I'm not overly enthusiastic about the game mechanics behind FW.

[Kimochi Rendar]

I've written a little bit about this on Kimochi's EVElopedia page.

I find this particular topic interesting as it gives some idea as to what motivates different people's characters, what values they hold and where their priorities lie.

That said, Kimochi is not a loyalist. When she lost her faith in God she left the Empire to go and make a name for herself in lowsec. She has no real family and thus no ties to anything she left behind in the process of her desertion. She strongly believes that the universe has no meaning and as a result the only cause worth fighting for is to further your own goals. Essentially she is nihilistic at her core and as a result can come accross as being somewhat callous or egotistical.

It's also worth mentioning that this mindset is something that has evolved over time... When I first made Kimochi she was a very different person. Through various events and observation of the world and those around her she lost some of the warm and flirty nature that characterized her originally, replacing it with a more cynical outlook. This has all been a part of me trying to distance her as much as I can from the Space Lesbians™ stereotype.

Also

Is what you get with contrasting characters like Kimochi around, offering pole dancing lessons >_> Razz  LOL

Whut..? When was that?

[Z.Sinraali]

My character has certain ties to a couple factions, but he's pretty far from 'loyalist' to any of them. OOC, I'm really not interested in the grand sweep of politics and war. It's the little stories that interest me, both personal dramas and those points where all the rhetoric and grand battles catch people up and sweep them along.

He's got his Caldari background, of course, and so holds a positive predisposition to the State and its citizens. He's more inclined to make deals with them, defend them against the more egregious claims made on GalNet, but he's not going to put his shit on the line for the State like a militia member or even industrialists like LDIS with their plans to develop Black Rise.

There's Ishukone in the background too, but his relationship to that organization is even more strained. "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in," and all that.

He also belongs to the SoE faith and works for a corp loosely affiliated with them. But even there, he doesn't condone a lot of their dealings, even in the interest of saving lives. And most of them are disfavorably inclined towards capsuleers anyways. (Can you blame them?)

Oh, and there's a strand linking him back to the Feythabolan empire which I haven't even entirely worked out yet, beyond claiming that's the origin of his rather non-Caldari given name.

[Casiella]

Casi is an idealist, not a loyalist. She has connections to some groups and currently works on developing additional connections, but in general she does that to focus on her own ideals and goals. Where an organization can serve those goals, great. Where an organization somewhat aligns with those goals, even better.

[Alain Colcer]

Well Bruno was an idealist, problem is, such chars are just carebears in RP terms.

My current char is much better suited to the harshness of eve and the gallente cultural domination aspect, my loyalty resides in wanting to keep the "power" of the Federation under my reach and able to do with it what i perceive is needed (needed for me and for those surrounding me of course).

[Repentence Tyrathlion]

Mortis is self-centred, selfish, amoral and utterly ruthless about getting what he wants.  Though he'll be immensely polite about it all for as long as possible

As a result, he's not loyal to people in the conventional sense; even if somebody is technically his boss, he still views them as a pawn and a tool.  He'll stick around people who seem most useful to him.  At this point, after over a year in Ghost Festival and all the links he's made with the Cartel, and more importantly, the Serpentis, he's sticking to his guns there.  Sure he joined up with Veto, but that was purely to have backup around.  He's a bit snooty about Guristas in general.  He knows he's walking a bit of a tightrope, but where's the fun in life without some challenge, eh?

In sharp contrast, Repentence is loyal to three things, and that is highly unlikely to ever change: her friends, the Empire and the Kingdom.  She forgot for a while, but she's a die-hard patriot at heart, and immensely proud of the long history of her people.  Still, although her relations with the Cartel have been skin-deep lately, she's reluctant to turn her back on them, as it could mean giving up more than she's prepared to lose.

Elysa I've never really gone in depth into her political motivations.  She's got more than a bit of Hethism in her, although she's moderated a bit in recent times, and she still supports the cause of the State.  Badmouthing it will result in being shot in the face.  Repeatedly.
However, she's got a few grudges against them, possibly related to being more or less cut loose when she graduated to freelance capsuleer training, and as a result she's become a drifter, working for whoever will pay.  That's how she justifies working for a Guristas-aligned group - 'It's just a job'.

And Ashley... well, that's another story.

[lallara zhuul]

Upbringing and life experience.

[Mithfindel]

Patriotism, loyalty and ideology can be several things. Let's see.

My "titular character" is Intaki originally because of that was the only way I could make him "look right". Had a little stint as True Amarr, but re-created as Intaki, at which point I started developing a background. As far as Caldari factions go, Mithfindel would be one of the "disassociated". During the "warm period" in Caldari-Gallente relations, he did study in the Federation and got his pilot's license there. However, despite this fact, he's Caldari. His parents (and grandparents) might be somewhat idealists, since they sided with the State in the Caldari-Gallente war. Himself, though, he had quite of a cool attitude to politics, despite being Waschi City Intaki (or, more exactly, Kamokor Intaki), partially due to the fact that he is Reborn and has a bit of a different perspective on things - up to the point that might be called indecisiveness. While somewhat loyal to the State - despite not feeling particular attachment to any of the megacorporations - this is not his primary motivator.

Of my alts, Lucius Ber-Seret (better known as "Julius Avitus", True Amarr) is loyal to the Kor-Azor Family. However, he is also making "quiet moves" in the Great Game played by Amarrian Holders. As a minor nobleman - additionally burdened by the fact that prior to Khanid II's rebellion, the family were vassals of Khanid Family - he isn't playing with very large bets, though. However, his ultimate loyalty is to his own family. In a way, he is not a typical Holder, since he isn't schooled to become the ruling member of his family, but due to the deaths of the preferred heirs, he ended up being the Holder anyway. Having studied art and philosophy in Hedion, he is somewhat liberalist (and absolutely adored Doriam Kor-Azor), but is becoming cynical very fast. While the liberal idealist streak is strong, he has the pragmatism to keep practical matters in front.

Finally, Axel Kurki (Civire) is from Ishukone. Of course, his education does mostly predate Gariushi's "acquisition" of Ishukone, just like all the capsuleers. While of course signing to the liberal ideology, his education in economics has brought him a very practical view of the world. His grandparents are veterans of the Caldari-Gallente war and his parents worked for Ishukone Watch (no longer necessary since their son is a capsuleer), so he does also have a very strong patriotic upbringing (without the capital P). Following on his parents' tours on various Ishukone installations has had an effect on him, seeing that "everything isn't right" and as such, had high hopes for Gariushi's policies. Ultimately, Axel is the simplest character here to answer - he is patriotic and loyal to the megacorporation just because that's the way things are. While feeling somewhat detached of Ishukone ideology due to Gariushi's death (seen by him as some kind of betrayal of the ideals Gariushi stood for), it did also strengthen his loyalties due to his (ex-Ishukone Watch) parents viewing Reppola as "our man".