Character Creation Guide & Application

Well if you've made it here that means that you have read through our lore, joined the forum and are hopefully chatting on our Discor! While we are excited that you are here and to see what kind of characters you bring to our rambunctious bunch, there's still some work to be done and things to read, so we welcome you to our Character Creation Guide!

This guide has been created to help you figure out what kind of character you'd like to bring in, where you may want to put them, what the limitations are, and as just a reference point for the future. If you ever get lost you can always message Bri, Cheshire, or Abyss - we would be happy to help you! Now, down to the good stuff!

Creation Rules

While VV is more of a relaxed site that encourages our members to be creative with their characters and stories, there, of course, are some rules and limitations that must be put in place to keep things here at least semi under control.

• All characters must be accepted before being played. When you post and finish a character, you can either tag a staff member in the thread somewhere or you can link it to us on Discord. We will let you know when your character has been accepted.
• No character limit. At the moment we do not have a limit on how many characters any one person can make.
• One account only. Being restated here, VV is a one account per member site, which means that all characters you create are managed through your one account.
• No. Character. Is. Perfect. End of story. No character is the strongest, or the prettiest, or the fastest, or the best in any way. No character is immortal, immune to sickness or natural causes, or unable to die. Every character has flaws, both in personality and in physicality.
• Ask about high ranks. If there is a position open that you are interested in in any of the packs and you want to make a character that holds that position, we recommend that you (1) ask staff about the position and (2) read the high rank requirements found here: Link
• If any issues should come up in the future, more rules may be added to this list. And if anything were to be added, everyone would be informed of it.

Wolf Guide

To give you an idea of what is acceptable and unacceptable when creating your characters, this is a list of general traits and features that must be taken into account, mostly about appearances.

• Breeds. We do not use specific wolf breeds on VV, so there's no need to specify "European Wolf" or "Gray Wolf" or anything like that.
• Terrain. In relation to breeds, as we don't use them, wolves here are not limited by what kind of environment any specific breed comes from in real life.
• Lifespan. Typically the average lifespan of a wolf is based on their species, but because we do not use species, we have made our own averages. The general average lifespan of a VV wolf is 8-10 years, but it is possible for a wolf to reach up to 13-16 years old if they are healthy and prospering for that long. If a VV wolf ever did reach 13/14/15 years old, staff would begin encouraging you to plan their death soon. If a wolf reached 16 years, they would be required to die of old age before they reach 17.
• Size. There are multiple types of size ranges that must be taken into account before you create your character.
  
  • Height: 25" - 41". (Average: 30" - 36") The shortest height a wolf can be is 25 inches and the tallest is 41 inches. There are only two exceptions to this range of heights:
    
    • Posture. If your wolf is on the larger or smaller size, you could potentially pull off claiming that your wolf is more than 41" or less than 25" because of their posture if they slouch a lot, but the limit of where this excuse is acceptable is 45" or 21", and it must be approved by staff.
    • Mutations. Currently there are two possible mutations that can affect a wolf's height, and that is dwarfism and gigantism, which would allow characters to be naturally shorter than 25" and naturally larger than 41". But these are not mutations that you can just use whenever. These mutations must be won or awarded to you through contests/events held on site.
  • Weight: The average female wolf ranges from 60 to 100 pounds, and the average male wolf ranges from 70 to 145 pounds.
    You are allowed to go a little bit over or under those ranges, depending on their physical health and circumstances or their overall size, but do not go wild with your numbers.
  • Length: An average wolf's body is 3-5 feet long and their tails are normally 1-2 feet long, but, like with weight, these can be slightly stretched for the sake of character creation.
• Eye Colors. Wolf eyes are most commonly varying shades of brown, yellow, amber, gray, and sometimes green. In real life, wolf pups start the first few weeks of their life with blue eyes, but their eyes change to their adult color within 6 to 10 weeks. A branch away from realism, on VV we will allow wolves to have some unrealistic eye colors. Orange and red are two that we accept more openly, as well as blue even though it is very uncommon in real life. We are not super strict on the remaining colors, but no wolf can have eyes that are neon pink or neon purple or neon green or any super bright and saturated colors. If they are going to have an eye color that is not brown, yellow, amber, gray, green, blue, red, or orange, it must be diluted/dull in some way.
  
  • Heterochromia. This means having 2 different colored eyes. Like gigantism and dwarfism for height, heterochromia is a mutation that cannot be used to create a wolf unless it is awarded to you in a contest or event.
• Pelts. We are not too strict when it comes to pelts and pelt colors, but we do ask that you keep your wolves relatively realistic in color and pattern.
  
  • Colors: The typical colors a wolf coat can be are: black, gray, white, brown, tan, orange, and cream. Other colors that we are ok with would be red, blue-gray, and gold. Beyond those, you cannot have pink, purple, green, or saturated blue wolves.
  • Markings: Wolves can have a very large variety of patterns and markings on them, so there are lots of possibilities that we accept that are both realistic and unrealistic. Some unrealistic things we accept would be stuff like freckles, dapples, and some stripes. But we aren't going to accept a wolf that is covered in super unrealistic things like crazy shapes. So no hearts, flowers, arrows, none of that.
  • Albinism. A wolf who is completely white in color and has red/pink eyes that are sensitive to bright light. This mutation is another of those that cannot be created whenever anyone pleases. It must be won or awarded to you in a contest or event.
• Scars.
• Disabilities. It is very possible for wolves to be created with disabilities. Like above in Scars, wolves can have disabilities (+scars) that happen during their life, such as losing an eye or losing an ear or a limb. Things such as being mute, deaf, or blind are also acceptable here. All that we ask is that you (1) do not go crazy and give your wolf a big list of disabilities, that is overkill. (2) If you are going to play a character who is blind, deaf, or mute, be respectful of those disabilities. These things are issues that people deal with every day and they do not define who you are, whether you are a human or a wolf. So do not abuse us allowing you to create characters with these things. If staff or any other members feel as though you are misrepresenting one of these disabilities or abusing them, we will stop it from continuing.

Creating Your Character

Submitting a character on VV is pretty simple. You just gotta follow a few steps.

1. Go to our creation board and create a thread with your character's name, pack, and rank as the title. Example: Sven [Vertok Knight]
   If they are a loner, just put Loner.
2. Use our provided character application form and fill out all of your character's information in their thread.
   Note: Our form is a very basic application with just the required information needed. If you would like to use your own fancy template or include extra information, please do! As long as you make sure that the required info is still given.
3. Once your character is finished, you can tag a member of staff here on site in the thread or you can tag us on Discord and your character will be evaluated. Once they are accepted, they will be moved to the proper board and added to our character directory. From there you will be free to begin writing and plotting!

Application Guide

We have created a basic application with all of the essential information for you to fill out. This section is here to just help explain each section and outline what we expect them to contain.

• Name. Characters do not have any limitations on names or aliases.
• Age. The minimum age a wolf can be created at is 1 month and the max is 8 years.
  
  • Pups. If you are creating a pup that is not the result of an on-site breeding, 1 month is the minimum age they can be. If you are creating a pup that is the result of an on-site breeding, we will allow you to create them at 0, but keep in mind that wolf pups do not even start walking, seeing, or talking until 2-3 weeks and wouldn't be leaving the den until 3-5 weeks, so they would more so be side characters to their parents until they reach at least 2-3 weeks.
  • Elders. The maximum age an elder character can be created at is 8 years, and this is because we want you to actually be able to play your character. Since the absolute max age a VV wolf can be is 16 years, we want to leave you a bit of time room to play as your character in their old age. The max creation age leaves potentially 6 more years that your character can live, which is a good bit of time for lots of stuff to happen.
• Gender. We do not limit characters on gender or sexualities. All we ask is that if your wolf does identify as another gender, please put what sex they were born as.
• Pack. There are currently 3 different packs and a brand new guild that characters may be apart of, or characters may be loners.
  
  • Vertok. Kind, loyal, and resolute. A pack known for their compassionate nature and their ability to stand strong in all cirumstances. More information: Link
  • Sanzin. Merciless, power-hungry, and chaotic. A pack known for their unrelenting aggression and their lack of care for others (sometimes even their own). More information: Link
  • Au'Dar. Mysterious, reclusive, and unique. A pack known for their mistrust towards all outsiders and their very unique culture in which all wolves walk alongside a non-wolf animal companion. More information: Link
  • Mercurior. Nomadic, free-spirited, and business-oriented. A brand new guild within the valley, not much is known about them or their lifestyle. But what is known is that they travel freely and many of them are known for being wolves of trade, offering varying services to any who will pay. More information: Link
• Rank. If your wolf is a loner, just put loner. If your wolf is apart of a pack, make sure to read through the pack information threads and find which rank would suit your wolf best.
• Tafa Information. Tafas are the unique animal companions exclusive to the Au'Dar. If your wolf is not from the Au'Dar, you may delete this section from the application.
  
  • Name and Species. Self-explanatory, what is the tafa's name and what kind of animal are they.
  • Picture. Please include a picture of the tafa.
  • Personality. This is optional, but you may include the tafa's personality in this section as well.
• Appearance. Characters are required to have a picture of their appearance in the application, but we also ask that you give us a general description of what they look like, including things like their build, their height and weight, their fur and eyes, any scars or visible disabilities, and any other unique features about them.
  Also, if you do use a picture for your character that is not from a royalty free website, we ask you too please put credit for the image somewhere, whether it is a real wolf or art of them.
• If you have read all of the information in this thread, please put somewhere in your character's application that you have read all of the rules and requirements.
• Reputation & Personality. Tell us what your wolf is like! How do others perceive them? How do they perceive themselves? What are their traits and quirks and interests? We require that all characters have at least a full paragraph describing these things, but you can go as in depth and include as much extra info as you want.
• History. Your character's backstory, what has happened in their life up until now. We require that all characters have either (1) at least a full paragraph describing their backstory, OR (2) a list of age-periods/events. Both options must include where (in general) they come from, any major events that made them who they are, and how they got to where they are right now.

The Application

Name

---

---

Image here

---

General Information
Alias(es):
Gender:
Age:
Pack:
Rank:

Tafa Information (For Au'Dar only)
Name:
Species:
Image here

Appearance
Any scars, patterns, missing limbs, etc. not shown in the image

Reputation + Personality
Your character's reputation and personality. What are they known for, feared for, rumors, etc. about your character. What are they like, their likes, dislikes, etc.

History
Your character's past

Staff Tag:


[div style="text-align:center;"][div style="text-align:center;"][font face="georgia"][font size="5"]Name[/font]
[/font][hr][hr][font face="georgia" size="2"]Image here
[/font][div style="text-align:left;"][hr][font face="georgia"][font size="4"][b][u]General Information[/u][/b][/font]
[b][font size="2"]Alias(es):
Gender:
Age:
Pack:
Rank:[/font][/b]

[u style="font-size:large;font-weight:bold;"]Tafa Information [/u][font size="2"](For Au'Dar only)[/font]
[font size="2"][font style="font-weight:bold;"]Name:[/font]
[font style="font-weight:bold;"]Species:[/font]
[font style="font-weight:bold;"]Image here[/font]
[/font]
[font size="4"][b][u]Appearance
[/u][/b][/font][font size="2"]Any scars, patterns, missing limbs, etc. not shown in the image[/font]

[font size="4" style="font-weight:bold;"][u]Reputation + Personality[/u][/font]
[font size="2"]Your character's reputation and personality. What are they known for, feared for, rumors, etc. about your character. What are they like, their likes, dislikes, etc.[/font]

[font size="4"][b][u]History[/u][/b][/font]
[font size="2"]Your character's past[/font]

[b]Staff Tag:[/b][/font]