Character History Guidelines

One of the most rewarding aspects of the Brotherhood is the creation and development of your character in the Brotherhood. Though the Dark Brotherhood is not a strict role playing organization, character creation and development is a widely encouraged. It is part of the whole experience that the Brotherhood provides, and, while there are minor restrictions, the character creation is perhaps the one area where you have the greatest freedom.

Emphasis must be placed on the fact that this is character creation. You are not writing about yourself in real life. This is the Star Wars universe: Earth does not exist, nor do the races that are commonly accepted to exist on Earth. You don't even have to go by your age in real life. Nothing from Earth belongs in your character history: hometown, religion, school, etc.

So long as you stick to the confines, such as they are, of the Star Wars universe, just about anything will go. HOWEVER, do not write yourself directly into the canon storyline. "Light" interaction is acceptable; that is, you may be in the same location as a canon character (such as the Jedi Academy), but "heavy" interaction, where you write yourself interacting with the canon characters is prohibited.

Because character creation (also referred to as submitting your history) can help you advance in rank, and because it is something valued in the Brotherhood, there is an approval process for your initial character history (after that, you may edit it at any time without approval. In fact, as you advance in the Brotherhood, you are encouraged to expand on your history). The history will be approved by the Headmaster or the Praetor to the Headmaster. They retain the right to deny your history if they feel that it needs additional work or if you ignore the rules below.

If you follow this guide, then you should come out with a decent character history and have no trouble in getting it approved. We will go step by step with the current template for the character history. Fields with an asterisk (*) are required fields, and failure to fill in the required fields out will result in a denial and force you to resubmit (please note: the website requires that something be placed in all open fields on your character history).

1. What sex are you?*
   Male or female? A fairly simple question. Most people choose to go by the sex in real life, but if you so desire (and want to take a more RP approach) then you can play someone of the opposite gender. This is required.


2. What race are you?*
   There's any number of races in the Star Wars universe. Humans are just one race (If you do list human, you can be more specific, such as Corellian). Each race will have different qualities that will impact your character. For more details on races, go here.
   This is required. (please note: Mandalorian and Sith are not acceptable races. The true bloods of these races died out long ago, leaving behind only a legacy to be followed). Also, the Brotherhood exists after the Battle of Endor, so keep that in mind. Unless your race lives thousands of years, there's no way you could have been around at the time of the Sith Wars).
   You MUST pick a race from the Star Wars universe. Vampires and elves, among other things, do not exist in the Star Wars universe.


3. Place of birth*
   You can list a planet, a specific city on a planet, or even a starship if you want. Your birthplace should, however, be based on your race. So, for example, while Humans can come from multiple worlds, Jawas come only from Tatooine. This is required.


4. Date of Birth
   Generally, the timeline of Star Wars uses the Battle of Yavin as the "zero point." You can be born before or after the Battle of Yavin. If you were born 10 years before the Battle of Yavin, could denote it as 10 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin). Then again, your date of birth could not be known, you may not wish to share it, or maybe you just don't want to deal with it. This is optional, but recommended.


5. Current marital status
   Single, married, or in a relationship? This is optional.


6. Current social status
   You can be poor, rich, a criminal, an outcast, or middle class. Then again, whatever you list here won't have any impact on your treatment in the Brotherhood. Respect must be earned, and can't be bought. This is optional.


7. What is your family like?
   How big is your family? Are they alive or dead? Do you even know where, or who, they are? Though this is optional, this can be a good place to explore the early part of your life


8. What are your current hobbies?
   This is one section where your real life can really influence what you write. Do you play an instrument, or sports? Do you enjoy flying, or hunting? Try to find a Star Wars equivalent to your hobbies in real life (ex: instead of baseball, say hoverball), but if you can't, then it's ok to list real life stuff. This is optional, but highly recommended.


9. What were your teen events?*
   It is generally accepted that by the time you join the Brotherhood, you have reached your teen years in real life. Then again, your character in the Star Wars universe is only based on you in real life, but it is not you entirely. While things can be based off of real life, you shouldn't state real life events. Given the wide variety of alien races, we will stick with the generally accepted real life ages for teens (13-18). This is required.
   This section requires at least 3 complete sentences, detailing 3 different life events. Not sentence fragments, not 2 sentences, not anything else but 3 or more complete sentences.


10. What were your adult events?*
    Basically the same rules apply as your teen events. You don't have to be an adult in real life for your character to be an adult in the Dark Brotherhood. But, if you want to keep your character as a teen, then you should at least put something to the effect of "I am not yet an adult." This is required.
    This section, if you fill it out, requies a minimum of at least 3 complete sentences detailing 3 different life events.


11. What is your attitude toward the Brotherhood?
    This can be your real life reaction to the Brotherhood, or it can be your character's reaction. This is not required.


12. What are your past occupations?*
    This can include student, light jedi, bounty hunter, soldier, farmer, or anything else from the Star Wars universe. What did your character do before joining the Brotherhood? Please read the notes at the end for a comments on originality. This is required.


13. Do you have any allergies or phobias?*
    Basically, your character is not a god. These can be major or minor things, but you should have some type of problem. You can be secretive, but you should at least say something like "Yes; but nothing I want you to know about." This is your character, so the allergy or phobia does not have to be a real life thing. This is required.


14. Do you have any personal tragedies?*
    Well, not everyone's life has something bad happen, but if you think it is part of your character, then go ahead and list/explain any tragedies. If you have none, feel free to say so. This is required.


15. What are your current views about the brotherhood?
    This is not required and it can either be your views from real life or what your character thinks.


16. What is your reason for joining the brotherhood?
    Same as #15.


17. Do you have any comments about the brotherhood?
    Same as #15


18. Personal quote
    Does your character live by certain words? Is there something that you really like? Not required, but encouraged.

Being Original
The Star Wars universe, or at least the fan fiction part of it, contains some very common character backgrounds. The Brotherhood is no exception and if you are looking for something original, here is a quick list of things to avoid. Please understand: if you do list any of these things for your character history, they will NOT be grounds for denial in and of themselves.

• The fallen Jedi who kills his/her master route, while perhaps common for many dark jedi, is used by many in the DB and throughout Star Wars. So, if you're really looking for originality, this is something to avoid.
• Bounty Hunters are extremely popular in the Brotherhood because a lot of people think they're cool. That may be, but there's a whole lot of them around. If you are going to be a former bounty hunter, at least explain why you left that job. After all, if you're a successful bounty hunter, why are you joining the Brotherhood? We don't pay nearly as well.
• Zabraks are very popular, due in no small part to Darth Maul and a few others. The problem is not so much that there are some many of them, but rather that they are frequently combined with the bounty hunting. A Zabrak bounty hunter is not as original as it sounds.
• Chiss are also popular, due in no small part to Grand Admiral Thrawn. The problem with many (though not all) people who claim to be Chiss is that they also claim to be super geniuses like Thrawn. Many also pair themselves with the bounty hunting job, though not as many as the Zabraks.
• The slaying of Jedi is very common, as is claiming that the Jedi slew someone's family. Let's set the record straight: the Jedi are not pushovers (especially when they're masters) and they don't go around slaying lots of innocent people. Judging by the amount of these two things observed in the character histories, the Jedi Order should be dead about ten times over, though not without first taking about 10% of the entire galaxy with them. Ok, so that's engaging in a bit of hyperbole. But, you get the point.

Some final notes:

• There will be no training under the Emperor or Darth Vader. If you did that, you likely wouldn't be here. You would have probably gone to Byss with the other adepts. In fact, there will be no training under any officially licensed character (Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade, Kyle Katarn, etc.)
• Save a copy of your history before submitting it through the database. Occasionally, the database will log you out (after about 20 minutes of "non-activity") and you don't want to have to retype everything.
• The Brotherhood exists after the Battle of Endor (about 20-30 ABY), so it is extremely unlikely that your character existed around the time of the Knights of the Old Republic games.
• Please, in the name of all that is holy, don't rip off the story line of a Star Wars game, especially KOTOR and KOTOR II, or any other offical work.
• Do not copy the history of or claim to be a Star Wars character, or a character from any other copyrighted work. This is plagiarism and will get you in front of the Court of Justice very quickly.