Creature Zircon [Ready]

[ivi]

Roleplay Type: World of Equestria.

Name: Zircon.

Sex: Male.

Age: Older teen.

Species: Dragon.

Eye colour: Blue.

Scales: Aptly named, his sand-coloured hide glitters like golden zircon gemstones. He's quite handsome and knows it; those scales don't get so shiny by themselves. The leathery frills on his ears, tail, neck, and wings are all a muted shade of brown, while his eyes are brilliant crystal blue. His fiery breath is the same vivid colour.

Physique: Zircon is a Sky Dragon, rather lean, tall and athletically built with natural agility both on the ground and in the air. On all fours he is about twice the height of a pony. At first he seems older than he actually is because of his size, and he likes it, sometimes even walking upright on his hind legs instead of an all fours.

Residence: Officially lives in Manehattan, though, he is more often than not exploring the rest of Equestria.

Occupation: Traveller.

History: Hatched by an elderly unicorn living by herself on the edge of Manehattan, Zircon’s early years were more like that of a young colt than a young dragon. The adoptive mother figure raised him that way quite intentionally, teaching him how to properly behave around ponies. He hardly even knew what a dragon was - and didn’t much care - until he first discovered hoarding. When he was about the size of a pony, his natural greed kicked in, and he began to steal and hide various things. It was innocent enough at first, little things like keys and candlesticks. The unicorn didn’t think it was anything to worry about, but it only got worse, and when he started stealing more valuable things such as jewelry and coins he was told to return all that he had taken and that he must stop stealing. But.. he didn’t want to. Angry, protective, and scared, he took his treasures and fled to the woods, where nopony would bother him. A few long days passed while Zircon was alone with the material goods, and he soon came to realize that none of the objects mattered when he couldn’t be around his friends. He returned to Manehattan apologetically, and, difficult as it was, returned the belongings to their rightful owners. To this day it’s an effort for him to resist his natural greedy tendencies, but he decided right then and there that keeping his sanity and his friends was far more important. Zircon happily stayed in Manehattan until he matured into an adolescent, at which point he set off to explore the world on his own. On occasion he still visits the city and the unicorn, however, he no longer enjoys staying in once place for long and simply loves the feeling of flying through an open sky and letting the wind take him where it may.

Character Summary: Zircon loves almost everyone, and almost everyone who gets to know him loves Zircon. He’s very accepting of others, and usually has an optimistic, enthusiastic attitude, believing that most creatures are generally good at their core. This is reflected in his love for making them happy, as he adores being the center of attention, talking to whoever will listen. Young ones especially enjoy his antics. He has a knack for storytelling, even if his energetic version of a tale is not exactly accurate. Most of the time, he’s acting just as much as he’s talking, and is a spontaneous risk-taker who loves having fun.

He absolutely hates structure and will do whatever he can to avoid being confined to any sort of routine. Planning things takes the fun out of them, so he’s not very good at thinking things through or giving thoughtful advice. But when he’s in a stressful situation Zircon ironically does just that, getting overwhelmed by all the bad possibilities until he manages to ignore them or fails to act at all. And he has an unfortunate habit of holding grudges against anyone who crosses him.

As a highly extroverted personality, the worst thing Zircon can imagine is being feared. He wants others to like his company as much as he likes theirs.

Overall, Zircon thrives when he’s in the spotlight, even though he often gets himself into trouble with his reckless, thrill seeking manner. He strives for close and meaningful friendships, and he genuinely cares about others. He may struggle with his greedy instincts but staying on the move and around friends helps keep that in check. As long as his wings are working you can be sure that Zircon will keep exploring, finding new relationships wherever he can as he makes the most out of almost any situation.

[ivi]

I guess I should bump this so it gets some attention. ^^

[starswirlthebearded]

I'll be getting to this over the weekend. Thank you for your patience.

[ivi]

Thanks! Take your time~

[starswirlthebearded]

Hey there ivi! Sorry for the delay.

Alright so let's get right down to it... I have to say... I really like the overall personality of this character and it does feel like a dragon. However, that is not all it takes to get into WoE.

I'll spare you the extensive details but after extensive discussions with my RPH colleagues these are the issues that were raised.

First is the history is overall very unWoE, and likewise very unFiM. It is very angsty being based on being abandoned and creating a "the world is against me" type of character. This is something we strive to avoid in characters, including dragons. Also ponies wouldn't turn away a baby dragon, just look at Spike. Though hoarding and possibly stealing does seem to be a trait that a dragon would have, that shouldn't be his only defining trait from his history along with revenge.

The character summary is likewise rather unWoE. From what we have seen, dragons are only solitary in their adulthood. They have friends, gangs, meetings, outings. Your dragon acts more like an adult dragon than a teenager. Also, completely avoiding ponies other than to steal from them really doesn't work well for our game which is largely Slice of Life oriented.

It isn't all bad though, the positive traits you put in really reflect well on your character! If you shift away from the angsty and keep in mind that we have a slice of life Role Play and design your character to mesh better with that, I see no reason why this dragon can't be accepted.

To be clear, there are no rules against being a jerk or even a thief (within reason of course), but they should be able to function within WoE well between characters. And I can't see this character being able to do that.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

[ivi]

Hm, I see what you mean.. Give me some time to work on it, and I'll post here when it's ready for review again, okay? And thank you for your help. ^^

[starswirlthebearded]

Sure! Take your time. And thank you for your understanding.

I look forward to what you'll come up with!

[ivi]

Of course I understand! I’d never improve if I couldn’t take critique, and I have to say, I reworked the character into something entirely different and I think it’s better now. Id est, much better, glad he wasn’t accepted before. I had the mindset of ‘could this be in an episode of FiM?’ this time.. So it’s ready for review again.

[starswirlthebearded]

Wow talk about a 180! Fantastic work ivi! The history is short, but it works and your character summary is sufficiently detailed for people to get to know your character! I think this will be a fine addition to WoE!

I'm going to present this to SRPHS. If anything is amiss either myself or a SRPHS will reply here!

[Armony]

[Rosewind]

Moving to creature.