Archetype

Overview

When you create your character you can choose a single character archetype from those described for the nation on the wiki. This is entirely optional; you don't have to have one. Picking an archetype, however, tells us a lot about what you consider to be the main role of your character. An archetype comes with a number of assumptions - if you choose the Dhomiro archetype for your Freeborn character that tells us that you are playing someone who represents their family to the wider world. If your Dawnish character is a troubadour, then we assume you are playing a priest who uses storytelling or music to exalt glorious champions.

Archetypes can provide useful characters hooks, but we also sometimes reference them when writing plots. For instance, if we are going to write some plot involving combat in Urizen - then we might aim that plot at players who have told us they are playing a sentinel. If we're writing plot involving rum doings in the Marches, we might aim part of that plot at characters who are bounders or landskeepers.

Not every character role is an archetype - there are priests in Dawn who are not troubadours, for example. Archetypes usually present a role in a certain way that resonates with the themes of a nation - or in rare cases is at odds in some way with those themes.

See also: Group Archetypes, What archetypes are and are not