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Second Step: Mythbase and Backstory

To start off, we should probably define what a Fa'e is: a Fa'e is a reincarnated deity, being, place, or object of power, such as that its actual existance can be ambiguous but has spawned belief anyway. Said deity, being, place, or object of power has to have died -- it is then brought back to life as a semi-mortal being called a Fa'e. This new life is known as its 'second chance', and the Fa'e will have the choice of either trying to complete whatever undoubtedly nefarious plot it had in the first place, or becoming human and spitting out a couple of kids and maybe abusing its powers to become a famous circus act or something. (...Not necessarily in that order: if a Fa'e goes human, it loses all of its powers and godly essences.)

So, as you can probably tell, the mythbase is the most important aspect of a Fa'e, and will pretty much define it. You've got a couple of choices as far as choosing a mythbase is concerned -- fairy tales are allowed, as are urban myths, mythology, ancient places or objects of power that no longer exist... You cannot, however, make up your own myth, nor can you choose a Fa'e based on a myth made up by somebody else (such as Star Wars mythology.) Whatever mythbase your Fa'e is based on has to have perished, faded out of existance, or disappeared for good.

Time of Death: ...Who's Counting?

So why do they have to die, anyway? Well, the easiest and most obvious answer is that, well, if they don't, they can't be reincarnated. It's as simple as that, really. This is why you can't choose to base your Fa'e on, say, Mount Fuji -- because it's actually still standing there and no amount of explaining is going to make us think otherwise. (You could, however, base your Fa'e on the spirit of Mount Fuji or something, and say that the actual Mount Fuji is more like an empty shell of a corpse now, but that's kind of farfetched and also kind of stupid.)

So how do you kill a god? Or a legendary weapon? Or a place of power? What if they didn't die in their original myth at all?

Well, that's where your handy-dandy imagination gets to come in! Gods don't necessarily have to be killed -- and even if you wanted to go that route, a little bit of research should come up with some solution. Perhaps the god was killed by his or her mortal enemy, or another god, or killed him/herself. Barring gruesome murders and suicides, the god could have simply faded away, having lost all of his or her followers. He or she could've wandered into a doughnut plant and fallen into a vat of doughnut dough and baked into a doughnut and then eaten and spiritually absorbed into a mortal that, upon next reincarnation, was possessed by the god (this is also an extremely stupid situation, don't use this one either.)

As for legendary weapons -- perhaps they were lost, broken, or thrown into the fires of Mount Doom. Perhaps the places of power were destroyed by earthquakes, paved over, dried up or withered away (if they were bodies of water or some kind of forest-y place respectively.) Perhaps the spirits inhabiting them, if there were any, faded away or died or fled to a newer, shinier legendary weapon or place of power.

The point is, there are all kinds of ways to explain a death or disappearance, and it doesn't necessarily have to be boring. If anything, the 'death' of the mythbase in question could weigh in heavily on your Fa'e's future plots or persona (if your Fa'e's past reincarnation was stabbed to death, for example, even reincarnated s/he could still bear the scars.)

The Relationship Between Past and Present

Another important thing to consider is how tightly or loosely your reincarnated Fa'e is going to be based on the mythbase. There should always be some heavy corrrelation -- don't make your phoenix Fa'e look like some kind of freaky insect and act as if he might as well be the reincarnation of a lawyer that died of self-ennui, please. The mythbase and backstory should, and even must weigh in on his present incarnation's personality and habits.

However, another interesting question to ask that's not often asked or answered in quest threads is -- just what kind of role exactly does your Fa'e's past self play with his present self?

There are all sorts of ways to handle this. Some Fa'e Guardians have chosen to effectively separate the god from the actual Fa'e -- if anything, the god influences the Fa'e, is presumably a part of the Fa'e, but is not actually the Fa'e. Other guardians have separated the Fa'e and their past selves completely, dividing them into two separate entities. The Fa'e's past self may be little more than a voice in their heads, or it may be a completely different but non-physical entity that requires a physical 'shell' in order to come back to power (and that's where the Fa'e comes in.) This is sort of like a partial reincarnation, if that makes any sense.

The Fa'e may be little more than his or her past self in a human-shaped semi-mortal form. They may identify themselves wholly as their past selves, or they may shrug and go "Yeah, that's who I was before, but I'm someone completely different now." Basically this is an entire reincarnation -- nothing remains of their past selves, either as a separate entity or as a voice, and the only thing that's left are their past actions and the Fa'e's eventual recollections of those actions (if those memories are to come back at all.)

Generally Fa'e grow up so that they're not aware that they're anything but mortal (if not human) until they hit child, but do not actually begin to regain their memories of their past lives nor really unlock any significant power until they hit teen. Youth onwards is generally the time they decide whether they want to regain their past power and become an Ancient, basically taking the place of their past selves, or else become human and give up everything they once were in their past lives. (Whoo, complicated, isn't it?)

I Shall Call It Squishy And It Shall Be My Squishy

The last issue necessary to address (though I'm not sure it belongs in this section, it kinda doesn't belong anywhere else either. Poor orphaned issue) is that of names. There aren't any real guidelines to names -- I can't tell you with certaintly that any particular combination (say, of the letters 'l', 'e', 't', and 'h') will result in the One True Name to Rule Them All. I can, however, tell what not to do, and that is to randomly pull a name out of your a**.

By that, I mean Japanese names for a character of non-Japanese descent. Or an Irish name for an African character. Even this is ambiguous though because -- who really names your character ICly, the guardian does, right? Well, what if your Fa'e is African but your guardian character is Irish? How is the guardian supposed to know straightaway that your character is secretly the longlost African Queen of Bees and Fertility with Six Boobages, and that she should name her some African name that means "Queen of Bees and Fertility with Six Boobages"?

(Hint: if you say 'intuition', or 'just because', I am going to draw a picture of you and then doodle moustaches and all sorts of weird non-flattering things all over you.)

So -- my point is that you should also consider the circumstances in which your Fa'e is going to be officially named. S/he doesn't necessarily have to be named, ICly, by your Guardian -- your Guardian could have recieved her Fa'e with a note pinned upon her baby blanket that said "NAME HER THIS OR I WILL DOODLE MOUSTACHES UPON YOUR LIP WHILE YOU SLUMBER." Or said Irish guardian could have stumbled across the baby in the first place while adventuring in Africa and recieved naming help from the nearby half-naked natives or something.

(I would also like to point out that names don't always have to be particularly meaningful. How many parents name their child something that means "Patience" or "Light", and what's the probability that the child is actually going to turn out that way?)

Fourth Step: Powers
I cannot say this enough -- powers and abilities should not define your Fa'e either. They should be the product of your Fa'e's mythbase and background, not the other way around.

Neither should this particularly be ignored and shoved into the background, because these sorts of things are really what -- besides appearances and the past life thing -- separate Fa'e from humans. Fa'e have the capacity to be great and powerful beings; this doesn't mean they ever actually live up to it, but the potentiality itself can be interesting to work with.

First and foremost, powers should be based upon the original myth (in fact, in the last custom writing contest, you were asked to explain how the powers related back to the myth.) If there's no base for a power, or any kind of logical justifiction that's not just you grasping at empty straws, you should not use it.

It's not to say that the only powers and abilities a Fa'e can have should be related back to the myth, only their inherent powers should be. They can have extranneous abilities and powers learned and trained, as long as you're willing to put the effort into actually showing them develop, and as long as you realize that these sorts of powers should be sparse and only developed if necessary.

Neither do they have perfect control over their inherent abilities at birth, either. Generally, their power is 'locked away' within them along with their memories, and only when the ties loosen do they slowly 'seep' back into the essence of the Fa'e. Generally this starts around kid stage, with powers at their most developmental and agitative states at teen stage. The Fa'e may very well never master their power until they reach Ancient, if they do at all.

My Power Levels Are Like Two Million

So. Powergaming. If your only justification for having powers -- any of them - in the first place is so your Fa'e can look cool and be admired by all for being so powerful, I've got a newsflash for you.

Nobody cares how powerful your Fa'e is.

The truth is, even in roleplays where you're battling something, people are not going to 'oo' and 'aa' over the extent of your Fa'e's magic prowress, or ability to magically 'master' a new ability everytime they appear to be in mortal danger and at the brink of death (seriously, don't do this.) What will be concentrated on is your Fa'e's resourcefulness, whether or not they can take hits, their strategy towards defeating their foe (and I don't mean "come up with complicated and highly improbable plans that luckily actually work" -- each Fa'e should have a different approach to battling.) It's even better if your Fa'e will actually work with others (if it's not in his personality, that's okay too; just as long as you acknowledge the efforts of others.)

Plus, if your Fa'e gets beat up -- well, we've got plenty of hot healer dudes/chicks who will suitably fawn over your damaged character (or kick his a** even more, depending on who it is.) Isn't that more fun than people going "Oh. The monster is defeated. Yay. ::goes back to chess game::"?

Puchi mentioned once (I was going to quote it but I couldn't find the thread; this may not be entirely accurate) that one should concentrate on one of four spheres: strength, magic, intelligence, speed. You may be tempted to make your Fa'e as well-rounded as possible, but -- then what would be the point in ever RPing any kind of group situation, where others could cover your Fa'e's weaknesses?

Weaknesses: Not Just For Wusses

Seriously -- I don't think I've read a single 'weaknesses' section in any of the Fa'e quests so far. It's fairly simple: for every strength your Fa'e has, he should preferrably have a weakness to match. For example, a physically strong Fa'e could be slow -- either physically or mentally. A Fa'e brimming with magic power could almost literally snap if you touched him.

And so on -- the point is, is that there should be some way to mess with your character. Forcing your character to face his weaknesses, whether by himself or through the ministrations of others, is a power vehicle for development and change. I'm not saying he actually has to master his weaknesses -- yes, he could train and come up with strategies to make up for his flaws, but a character that starts flawed and ends up 'fixing' all of his flaws is just as bad as a character who was never flawed at all.

And if you have flaws, play them. Allow other people to get a hit on your character, allow your character to lose. Acknowledge the strengths and abilities of others, and it is likely that they will do the same for you in some way.

As an exercise, you might come up with a strategy as to how one would go about utterly pummeling your Fa'e, and keep it. This is a good thing. I'm not saying your Fa'e should lose all the time, or be more flawed than he is strong (though this could certainly be more interesting if played right), but if you play your character as a god then there is absolutely no reason for your character to have been reincarnated and chosen to go through the 'trials' of mortality in the first place.

DO NOT WANT: a list of powers off-limits

I implore you to please, please, PLEASE read the sticky in the other Fa'e guild about myths and powerbases already touched upon. It's not entirely comprehensive but should give you some idea of what's already been taken.

With that said, we generally do not want any more Fa'e with the following powers (exceptions can be made if you write it very well, but judges will likely be harsh on any Fa'e exhibiting the following powers):

Shamanism, teleportation, shapeshifting (I think 1 in about every 3 Fa'e has some form of this power), shooting lazer beams from eyes, seduction in any kind of way, shape, or form, voice-related powers, some kind of elemental affiliation (since most of them have been done to death anyway...), ect ect ect.

Sixth Step: Guardian

Eighth Step: Questing