Steadfast Lore
A troll by the name of Jinjinn, fervent disciple of the Loa, was once called upon by them to form a brotherhood, to combat the Lich King in the frozen wastes of Northrend. Motivated by his religious zeal, Jinjinn went about assembling the guild of Steadfast. Little did he know that he was being led astray by the Old God, Yogg-Saron. The Elder God, masquerading as the voices of the Loa, convinced Jinjinn to begin marshaling forces for a battle in Northrend, the soldiers of which were to be forged in the crucible of the wrecked world of Draenor. As the call to battle against the Burning Legion sounded, Steadfast crossed through the Dark Portal to fight for the Horde. Those assembled under the banner of Steadfast became a brotherhood through steel and blood.
Then, the Scourge was unleashed upon the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. The champions of Steadfast charged forward into battle with the Lich King's armies. With Steadfast's presence in Northrend, near to the Old God's prison, Yogg-Saron's whisperings became louder and more pressing, with Jinjinn beginning to realize that the Loa were not leading, but manipulating him. The voices insistently whispered in his mind that Jinjinn was the chosen, that Steadfast were champions of a righteous cause and that the fight in Northrend must go on. But, the voices also chided him, scolding him for not unifying Steadfast in purpose, for not delivering on his promise to bring a loyal army to serve the Loa. Yogg-Saron filled Jinjinn's head with many voices, all claiming to represent the Loa. Eventually, the strain proved too much for the priest and Jinjinn rejected his faith in the Loa, leaving the icy lands of Northrend for the solitude of a remote village in Kalimdor. But even there the voices followed him and Jinjinn left Steadfast behind to follow a new path, trying to free himself from the Old God and abandoning the work he had started in what he thought was the word of his gods.
Without the direct line through its founder, Yogg-Saron's influence on Steadfast was severed, and its inscrutable manipulation was at an end. However, the brotherhood continued its fight against the Scourge and the Lich King, joining the armies that would eventually dethrone Arthas Menethil. In this quest, the members of Steadfast discovered a secret plan to unleash destruction upon all Azeroth, utilizing an arcane device, powered by the souls of children. Through the efforts of the brotherhood, this plot too was foiled, though at strong personal cost. Steadfast has returned to the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor and stands ready to face the next menace to the safety of their cherished lands: the dragon aspect, Deathwing.
Roleplay Policy
Steadfast maintains an active roleplay community within the guild. While all members are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity, it is not required. Steadfast encourages roleplay through at-least weekly in-character gatherings, known as Tavern Nights; an in-game chat channel for in-character interaction, called SteadfastRP; and a roleplay section of the forums, containing areas for both in-character storytelling and discussion of roleplay and lore. The roleplaying of Steadfast may involve any and all of these options and members are encouraged to be involved in all three in order to get the most out of their roleplaying experience in Steadfast.
Tavern Nights are open to all guild members and are scheduled as part of the regular guild calendar events. While some of these take place at the various taverns around Azeroth, they may also take place further afield, pursuant to the needs of the particular stories being told through guild roleplay, as delineated by Steadfast's Bard and fostered by Steadfast's members. While these events are primarily for the members of Steadfast, anyone willing to join in the events in an appropriate fashion is welcome and Steadfast members should work to make others feel comfortable in their interaction with the ongoing storyline.
SteadfastRP exists as a virtual guild hall, in which members of Steadfast may meet, regardless of their actual location in-game, to continue stories, swap tales, and general in-character banter. All members of Steadfast are encouraged to join this channel, which may be done by typing “/join SteadfastRP.”
The roleplaying forums consist of a section for in-character posting, which may consist of player written fiction, interactive forum-based roleplay, or any other in-character posting; and a section for out-of character, which may consist of out-of-character discussion of guild roleplay events, Warcraft lore, or general meta-roleplaying issues.
Bard
The Bard is responsible for the planning and overseeing of Guild role-playing events. The Bard is responsible for recruiting their own committee and for keeping the other Councilors and the Guardians informed of events. The Guardians will be available to assist the Bard as necessary, It is also the responsibility of the Bard to notify the Guild membership of the events, post the events on the Guild calendar, and promote the events outside of the Guild as appropriate. The Bard is responsible for hosting role-playing events at a minimum frequency of once per week. The Bard may appoint Assistant Officers to aide them in their duties as needed. The Bard will have forum moderation rights for relevant sections of the Guild forums. If the Bard is unavailable to carry out their duties for a period of time, the Lore Master shall fill in until the Bard is once again available.
Lore Master
The Lore Master responsible for setting the overall Role-Playing theme of the guild. They will work with the Bard to ensure lore continuity.
Roleplaying Guidelines
Developing a character can be a challenging process and Steadfast offers a number of suggestions in furthering its members' in-character development:
Familiarity with the lore. While it is not necessary for a Steadfast roleplayer to have memorized the story of all Azeroth, it is useful to understand the context in which your character exists. There are a number of useful websites that can assist with this, as documented in the forum post, OOC: Useful Links! When in doubt, ask Steadfast's Bard or Lore Master for further guidance.
Dialogue and dialect. As text-based interaction is the primary means by which roleplay is furthered in World of Warcraft, the degree to which that text is presented in a manner that is credible and consistent with how an actual denizen of Azeroth would speak is vital. This means avoiding “leetspeak” (e.g, lol, “u” instead of “you,” etc.) and using expressions that would be believable for an individual living on Azeroth to use. Additionally, many of the races have unique dialects, accents, and expressions that, if used in one's roleplay, further add to the sense of immersion.
Character knowledge as distinct from player knowledge. While a player's knowledge of the World of Warcraft may cover every instance, raid, and zone, it is unlikely that any one character living in the world of Warcraft would have that depth of knowledge. In considering what your character knows, it will be important to differentiate the information that is available through your knowledge of the game from what knowledge your character has gained through their adventures in Azeroth.
Roleplaying is collaborative. Just as the extent of a real human being's influence has its limits, so too should the characters played. Your actions should not dictate the actions of others. There is a difference between what your character attempts to do and how others respond to it. Your responsibility is the former, others the latter. If there is a situation where, to further a particular story, there is a desired outcome, talk with the other player(s) beforehand to greenlight any possible story elements that are strongly desired.
Recommended Addons
There are no required addons to roleplay in Steadfast, but there are a number of addons that can facilitate roleplay and are encouraged for members of Steadfast interested in roleplaying to download and install:
From the developer's description: MyRolePlay is a roleplaying addon for World of Warcraft. It allows you to add roleplay-specific information about your character that other users of MyRolePlay (and other compatible addons) can see in the tooltip, and in a more detailed window.
You can change your first name, middle name, and surname; you can add a 'title' for your character. You can set your preferred style of roleplaying, such as "normal", "casual", "fulltime" or "beginner", and your status, such as whether you're "in character", or perhaps you're specifically "looking for contact" from other roleplayers.
From a description from the WoW Insider website: This is one of the more "advanced" roleplaying addons out there, but what it does to enhance the roleplay experience is nothing short of phenomenal. This addon works like MyRolePlay and FlagRSP2 -- only those with Gryphonheart Items installed will be able to see and use the items that the addon allows you to create. Say what? Create items? That's right. Gryphonheart Items lets you actually create tradeable items and objects, food, drink, quest items, and darn near everything under the sun with a few simple clicks -- or in the more advanced cases, a little coding.
From the developer's description: This addon adds a great amount of roleplay features such as characters and pets informations (names, titles, story, description, temper ...), item creation and inventory management, document creation (Books, contracts, letters...), buff/debuff creation (called States), quest creation, and many more.
