APPLICATION GUIDELINES
Presumably, if you're still poking around here, you're thinking about bringing a character into this game. Unfortunately we are not the least complicated ever, due to our increasingly sprawling AU setting - hopefully, though, this page will make you a bit less confused. If you do have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact a mod; we basically exist to answer your questions, however inane.
You can app any fictional character from any source, however obscure. We're okay with characters from comic books, novels, web novels, webcomics, picture books, live action and animated TV and film, video games, commercials - as long as the character is fictional and as long as they come from a pre-existing source. We might make accommodations to allow OCs in the future, but we have no concrete plans in place. We will never be allowing non-fictional individuals, although we do refer to thinly veiled analogues for real celebrities and politicians now and then, usually simply by spoonerising their names because we're ~smart~ like that. (The most notorious example is Ben Gleck.)
So, with that out of the way, on to the complicated stuff.
First off: where to? XI isn't a jamjar game; the characters are not restricted to one place and, although it's based around a school, that school isn't the limit of its setting. Currently, the three main options for your character are the Xavier Institute, the Brotherhood of Mutants, and Independent.
The Xavier Institute is currently the busiest part of the game. Characters apped into other roles/positions/situations are considered 'Independent' even if they operate under orders from another character or within an established group like S.H.I.E.L.D., the Brotherhood, or the Avengers. They have a lower activity requirement than Institute characters.
APPING INTO THE XAVIER INSTITUTE
That's what the XI in our name stands for, so understandably the Xavier Institute is kind of the game's hub. There's more on the place itself on its wiki page; what we're dealing with here is what you need to do if you want to app someone there.
⊗ STUDENTS!
Are probably the easiest thing to app here because they can be basically any kind of character as long as they're 18 or under, and as long as they're a mutant. (If they are neither of these things in canon ... well, that's where the whole 'AU' part comes into it.) The vast majority of students at the Xavier Institute are mutants. There are a very small minority of students who're things like space aliens, robots, or genetically engineered or cursed humans, and an even smaller minority of normal humans - if you want your student character to not be a mutant, you'll have to come up with a workable reason for them being at the Institute. Thanks to its outrageously charming Endowment Board (Warren Worthington III and Aimery de Courfeyrac, whose combined might could charm the body part off an animal), the Institute has the funds to fly students over from pretty much anywhere if their family can't afford it. (It also provides its many orphans with a reasonable allowance).
⊗ TEACHERS!
Should be either mutants, people with an interest in pro-mutant activism, or actual teachers. A lot of them are people who used to be superheroes, but a lot of them aren't. When people ask "are any of these people qualified to teach" we tend to stick our fingers in our ears because it spoils the fun, so try not to worry about that too much.
Classes at the Xavier Institute range from normal things like History and English and Biology to power-specific classes like Flight and Illusions ... sometimes there are also classes like Aerial Combat and Firearms, though, so if you want to pick a pretty far-out subject for your character to teach nobody's going to hold that against you. Just make sure to check what classes there are beforehand, so you don't wind up picking a subject too close to one we already have and stepping on people's toes. We don't have a problem with multiple teachers for one subject, but you might want to make sure it's okay with the player of the character already teaching a class before you decide your character's going to teach it too.
A complete list of classes is here; we recommend you pick a class that is currently on the "Classes without teachers" list rather than making up some random class to teach. A character doesn't have to be on top of their powers to be a teacher - or any other kind of member of staff. Some of the staff teach in exchange for using the school's facilities to get a better handle on their mutant abilities.
⊗ OTHER STAFF!
The Xavier Institute could always use more housekeeping, kitchen and admin staff. Also counsellors. And doctors and nurses. And actual therapists. Again, these are pretty likely to be mutants or people involved somehow in mutant affairs, although they could well have some kind of ulterior motive ...
However, it's important to bear in mind that it's highly unlikely that Xavier will hire any staff who he considers to be a potential threat, and he is a very perceptive man. If you want to play a member of staff of any kind, either their heart should be in the right place ... or they should be very good at hiding the fact that it's not. If your adult character is very blatantly evil, that doesn't mean you can't app them: you're welcome to give them a role outside the school - or, indeed, to AU them as a teenager.
⊗ MY CHARACTER IS TOO OLD TO BE A STUDENT BUT NOT REALLY QUALIFIED FOR ANYTHING ELSE!
This is an AU, you can make them younger if you want. If you don't, though ... well, the Xavier Institute does not have any college stuff going down (yet), but college-age characters who need help controlling their powers are welcome at the Institute and can probably receive some one-on-one tutelage both in learning to use their powers and in other areas - they may also be able to take on a mentor group.
Many members of the Xavier Institute's staff have been X-Men in the past. If you want this to go for your character too, go ahead and do it, but remember to check the X-Men page on the XI wiki first.
APPING INTO THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS GENOSHA
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Brotherhood has recently relocated itself to Genosha, an island off the coast of Africa that until recently was a relatively prosperous nation secretly built on the backs of SLAVE LABOUR. Mutant slave labour, to be exact. About 15-20 years ago the Genoshan government started testing every newborn infant for the X-Gene; those who tested positive were removed from their parents' care (the parents were usually told that some kind of tragedy had befallen the child) and raised, in inhibitor collars, as slaves. The vast majority were used for manual labour by relatively large businesses or government organisations, with a few being the property of exceptionally well-connected and wealthy individuals.
The Brotherhood of Mutants found out about this through the actions of a couple of their spies, and set out to right this wrong; unfortunately their attack on Genosha went horribly wrong and one mutant suddenly having their inhibitor collar removed basically caused a massive explosion to engulf the entire island. Most people who lived there are now dead and towns across the island have been destroyed.
Magneto has claimed Genosha for mutantkind and announced himself its ruler. The island is open to mutants from all over the world - provided they're willing to put a bit of work in to help rebuild it from the ashes. The whole thing is kind of like a post-apocalyptic commune where everyone has powers and you are ruled over by a man in a funny helmet.
AS SUCH, characters who fit into the "Brotherhood" slot fall into three loose categories:
⊗ EX-BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS
These guys are the ones who joined the Brotherhood when it was still an underground mutant terrorist group. Either they really believed in Magneto's ideals (Mutants and humans can never live together in peace, human society will never work in mutants' favour, or just mutants are better than humans), OR they wanted an excuse to fight stuff and the Brotherhood let them do that more than other options did, OR they were rescued by the Brotherhood in some capacity and didn't have any other options.
Also by underground we mean underwater because they spent most of the last few months in a submarine. New characters can still be apped into this category, but the assumption will generally have to be that they were away from the group on some kind of mission elsewhere and have only just returned to its folds.
⊗ EX-SLAVES
There are a couple hundred mutants on Genosha who used to be slaves. A few are old enough (20+) to dimly remember childhoods in which they were not slaves; most have never been anything else. Those born into slavery will have never used their powers before they were freed (and probably didn't know what their powers were, unless they're overt physical mutations that they were born with), will not have been educated except to follow orders and carry out the usually menial tasks they were put to work for (most of them cannot read), and they don't have names, only numbers. HOWEVS Magneto sees education as very important, and all freed slaves are encouraged to pick a name, or given one. (It is probably a really stupid name; see below.)
⊗ NEW ARRIVALS
Mutants from all kinds of backgrounds all over the world are welcome to come to Genosha. Magneto isn't getting all that picky about who he lets in, so while plenty of new arrivals might well be mutants who do really think it is in their best interests to go, some of them may be spies. JUST SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
If you're not sure how your character is even getting to Genosha, no worries - Magneto has his ways, and he wants to help each and every one of you. (Basically there are secret pick-up points in Madagascar, Seychelles and mainland Africa.)
A NOTE ON NAMES: "Magneto" is a stupid name. So are "the Operative", and "Inferno", and every other stupid superhero codename ever. Unfortunately, those are the kinds of names you get around here. Everyone who comes to Genosha is encouraged to START ANEW and ABANDON THE NAMES THAT HUMANITY GAVE THEM, which in practice means calling yourself ISOTOPE or FIRESTRIKE. Please bear in mind that this is taking place in a comic book-style universe, so, while some people may remark that this is silly, precisely how preposterous it is should occur to people ICly far less frequently than is realistic or even plausible.
Unlike the Xavier Institute, there is very little room on Genosha for characters who aren't mutants. If you want to app a non-mutant character into Genosha, please talk to a mod.
APPING INDEPENDENT CHARACTERS
Characters not affiliated with either of these groups can do any number of fascinating things, but here are some suggestions for things that will ensure they regularly have something to do:
⊗ Running or working for some kind of business in Salem Center (the nearest town to the Xavier Institute and oft-frequented by its students and staff).
⊗ Being a villain of some kind. There are a good few existing villains you can work for or cooperate with (for example Facilier the Shadow-Man, or Albert Wesker) - and, even if you work alone, bank robbery and diamond heist threads are bound to get a good bit of attention.
⊗ Being a superhero. There are PC-run groups, like the teen Justice Squad or the Japan-based Shinigami, or NPC groups like the Avengers. You get to thwart bad guys and have wacky adventures and team-ups with other superheroes! All over the world! Disappointed by the fact that the Xavier Institute has yet to run a school trip to the Savage Land? APP A SUPERHERO. GET THERE FIRST.
⊗ Same goes for people who work for S.H.I.E.L.D. If you want to app one, you probably won't be the last, and we're really not going to stop you.
We'd really like to see more groups outside the Institute and Brotherhood. If you want to, say, app someone as a Salem Center-based cop, it's worth asking around to see if anyone's willing to help you staff the police station. If you want to start a gang of supervillains, see if there's anyone else who's been wanting to app a bad guy who you could cooperate with! Same goes for teams of heroes. If you don't know where to start asking, feel free to drop into our AIM chat xichat (sometimes it's not working, in which case you might want to check 'mutantparty') or make a post at mutantprom. (Even if you're not in the game yet!)
POWERS
The majority of characters at xi_rpg have superpowers of some description, but, thanks to the nature of the AU, a lot of characters aren't going to have powers that are the same as the ones they have (or don't have) in their canon.
Some characters' powers might be easy to pick. For example, it makes sense for a character who is canonically pyrokinetic to be pyrokinetic in this RP, and it goes without saying that it makes no real sense to give a character the power to talk to animals when in canon their only power is eye beams (although, hey, if you wanted to argue the case for it, we'd probably let you do it) - but sometimes it's not that easy. You might want to choose something that reflects their personality, or the skills they have in canon - or you might just want to pick something else entirely. As long as it's not gratuitous author appeal (giving a character a power you have a hard-on for, for whatever reason, when there's no canonical reason to do it) and as long as they're not overpowered as a result of your choices, we'll probably be okay with it.
A note on quantity of powers: one power is a good number of powers to have. Two is acceptable, especially if the powers are related somehow; we tend to be a little disapproving of characters with two powers that don't really "go together" unless they're absolutely vital for the character to be who they are.
Generally speaking, if you want to give more than two powers to a character, especially a young mutant, you had better have a damn good reason for it.
⊗ Multiple applications of the same basic power are fine. For example, both Beast Boy and Tiana can, if they want to, fly, breathe underwater, drastically alter their size, and possess strength in excess of a human's, among many other things, but they still only have one power: shapeshifting.
⊗ Having several powers that are related or "go together" somehow, either functionally or thematically, is generally okay, especially if the powers are minor.
A few other things to bear in mind:
⊗ Just because your character has a power in canon doesn't mean they're automatically allowed it at XI. If a character can cast a variety of different magic spells, for example, pick just one that you feel fits them the best/is the most interesting/whatever and which is easily workable as a mutant power, don't try to give them all of them.
⊗ If your character doesn't have any powers at all in canon you can just make one up for them, but don't give them multiple unrelated powers or we'll reply to your app asking you to change them.
⊗ Very powerful abilities are best given to characters for whom it will be IC to not use them in excess. If it would be OOC for your character to not fuck everyone's shit up constantly given half the chance, don't give them a power that would allow them to do that.
⊗ If you're having trouble deciding on a character's powers, this list may be helpful. If you're still at a loss, feel free to ask us to help you out.
BACKGROUNDS
Possibly one of the most difficult parts of an AU app, and the one we get called on to help with the most. No worries if you're having trouble - we will be RIGHT THERE to give you a hand. With all our hands.
First of all, you should read the setting page for an idea of the world you're bringing the character into. The game timeline is also worth checking out.
Secondly, you're going to want to check the taken characters page to see if there are already characters in the game from the same series as the character you want to app, and, if there are, check those character's info to see if you want to synch your character's history with theirs!
Thirdly ... well, you're going to have to think a bit. Obviously a canon background which involves the character believing they're a normal person until they discover some kind of Puberty Superpower will require less changes than that of a character raised as a slave by alien robots on an intergalactic warship after their parents were killed by terrorist space wasps, but basically as long as your character's AU backstory bears some resemblance to their canon one, and doesn't have, for instance, massive gratuitous trauma that they didn't have in canon, you should be okay. If you need to bend it, or simplify or omit things, to fit it into this AU, that's absolutely fine.
If you're apping a character as a student who has a long history of exciting shenanigans behind them in canon, it might be best to have them come from an equivalent to the very beginning of any adventure-filled character arc. If they're going to be a member of staff, or a senior member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, or a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent or a superhero or something, you have more free rein to give them wacky shenanigans in their backstory, but you might want to hold off on having them have saved the entire universe multiple times.
FINALLY, a little character appin' FAQ to help you out with any uncertainties you might have (or rather, to reassure you that you can do outlandish things).
WHAT DO I DO IF I WANT TO APP ...
... a character who was played here before, but was dropped?
That's a little bit up to you and a little bit up to the people playing the characters they interacted with. You can either read up on their old threads and keep their old CR and memories, or you can ask the other people involved if they're willing to retcon those out. Alternatively, if the others want to keep the old CR and you don't, you can probably come up with some way to work around it. Seriously, go wild with that, we're a comics-based game, we won't care. They lost their memories in some unlikely accident? That's fine! The one we had originally wasn't really them, it was a Skrull or a clone or an LMD (Life Model Decoy/identical robot imposter)? EVEN BETTER! Seriously - seriously - whatever you like.
On that note, we probably don't need to tell you that if the character died when they left or something, you can just come up with an excuse for them to come back to life or to have secretly not been dead this entire time.
... a temporary character?
We are totally fine with people apping characters for the sake of one plot they want to do - whether that's a villain who'll drop off the map after he's thwarted or a character from a dystopian future who needs to change the past to stop their crapsack world from coming into being who'll bugger off back to the future once she's got the help she needs. Even if they wind up dying or ceasing to have ever existed, it's not like nobody will ever be able to bring them back later on if they want to.
... a character from the same series as another character I play?
That's totes fine. It's not like they'll necessarily even share any background, what with this being an AU and all. Tagging yourself all the time is very much discouraged, but if you can pull that sort of thing off without tagging yourself too much then go for it. Generally speaking, though, if all or nearly all your characters are from the same series, that might be a problem. (Note: this doesn't go for the Marvel or DC universes overall on account of their being so sprawling and vast.)
... a character who's on the NPCs list?
This depends on the character. Some characters, like Professor Xavier or Magneto, need to be mod-controlled for plot reasons. Others are simply on the NPC list because we need them to exist in certain roles - the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, for instance, were characters we felt it necessary to include as superheroes to give the AU's background goings-on a more traditionally Marvel-y flavour, but we've since accepted apps for Tony Stark (Iron Man), Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Steve Rogers (Captain America). Basically, if we can trust you and you're willing to work with the AU background we've got for the character already, we'd be more than willing to let you at it.
... a character who's related to or involved with one or more that we already have?
Talk to the players of the other characters, because they might well have background stuff that you'll need to take into account. If you guys work out something new between yourselves, retconning that into the existing character's background is fine, but remember that the mods need to be informed of any significant changes to backgrounds - this is to make sure that nobody edits anything in that we wouldn't have allowed in on an application.
... a different version of a character you already have?
Acceptable under some circumstances, but there has to be a canon precedent for there being two of the character or for one of them coming from an alternate reality or something - for example, we have two of Squall Leonheart, but one of them calls himself Leon and comes from an alternate reality that was consumed by a mysterious entity known only as 'the Darkness'.
Other acceptable reasons for doubles would include cloning and time travel, but we'd definitely like you to talk to us about it first.
If we're talking two versions of a character who aren't at all alike, for instance Merlin from the BBC series and Merlin from Disney's Sword in the Stone, you can probably get away with making them just two separate people with the same name, especially if their powers aren't that similar. This can sometimes also go for reimaginings of comic book characters where their separate incarnations are sufficiently different, but you'll really have to argue your case to us on that one.
... a character I invented myself?
Unless you're a published writer we're afraid the answer's no. We may allow OCs at some point in the future, but for now characters have to come from an existing source.
... a character from space?
We have a ton of those, you'll probably be fine; as long as you have a reason for them being on Earth, you're golden. A few examples: Koriand'r (although she's since been dropped) was an exiled alien princess who came to Earth looking for help, Karolina Dean and Teddy Altman are aliens raised on Earth who think they're human, and all the dragons we have (from Pern and Temeraire) are aliens. Space is a big place, so feel free to just decide your character's canon space planet exists somewhere out there in the game universe, but if you want to AU a non-Marvel character as part of a Marvel alien race that's fine too.
... a robot?
Again, that's totally okay as long as you explain where they're from and what they're doing here. Currently we don't have any robots, but we used to have the Vision and we've had a few other robots around as NPCs and in backstories, such as the Doctor's dog K-9 and Bob, a miniature AI inside a human skull.
... a dragon?
The nature of dragons in this RP means we have to keep them kind of controlled; if you're interested in apping a character who's a dragon, please speak to a mod about it. This doesn't go for human characters who can transform into dragons, or humans with dragonlike features.
... a god?
As long as they're not from a contemporary religion, and as long as you've got a reason for them not being off in Valhalla or Olympus or wev. Moreover, they should be from some established fictional interpretation of the pantheon, however inaccurate, for instance Marvel's Thor, or Disney's Hercules. Like anything else, they'll need to be AU'd to fit the setting, but we're willing to let Marvel's god business get a bit mangled in the name of crossfandom AU clusterfuckery.
... an animal?
As long as they're sapient, sure. If you just want to have a character's pet around, you're better NPCing them as just that, a pet (like Power Girl's horrible cat, Simon's hamster Boota, or Harry Dresden's cat Mister), although bear in mind that students are technically not allowed to have pets that they cannot keep comfortably in a smallish cage, vivarium or aquarium. If you definitely want to just app an animal, though, there are a few routes you could take - either anthropomorphise them entirely, make them a human who's become trapped in animal form for some reason or as a human who can take animal form (Amaterasu and our Wolf's Rain cast are mutants with the power to shapeshift into wolves), or make them an animal who for some reason can speak (for example Dug can speak thanks to the collar Tony Stark made for him). Whatever fits best for your character!
Please note, though, that even if the animal is sapient, you can't app a pet for your own character.
... a character from an alternate reality?
Only when there's a precedent in their canon for that character traversing dimensions. 'Dimension-hopping is canonically possible in their universe' doesn't count - it has to be characters who do actually go from one alternate reality to another in their canon (and as a big part of their story and character). Sora from Kingdom Hearts, for instance, would be an acceptable 'verse-traversing superhero, as would Marvel's Exiles, or Doctor Strange. Examples of characters from alternate realities who we already have in this game include Leon Leonheart and Power Girl, both of whom came into XI's reality from ones that were destroyed, and whose realities were both destroyed in their canons.
... a clone?
If the clone is a canon one, or if you feel like cloning would be a good way to explain a similar phenomenon in your character's canon, be our guest.
... a character from the future/past?
Ideally characters from the past or future ought to be AU'd into the present wherever possible, but we get that sometimes the time period significantly affects who a character is, and we're totes willing to accommodate characters who've been brought here from the past for that reason - we already have a couple of characters from the past (Laurence and Temeraire are from the early 1800s). Feel free to either claim time travel or stasis. As for characters from the future, X-Men canon is so full of characters who've travelled to the present from future dystopias that it'd be pretty much criminal if we weren't okay with that sort of thing. If you want to make it an I AM HERE TO PREVENT THE FUTURE FROM HAPPENING YOU MUST HELP ME SAVE THE WORLD sort of deal, that is absolutely fine - bring your plot idea to the mods and we'll see what we can do for you.
Please note: While apps are now constantly open at the moment, you cannot app more than two characters in one month - and only one of those characters can be at the Institute - the other will have to be Independent (including Brotherhood or Sanctuary).
OK, take me to the app page!
You can app any fictional character from any source, however obscure. We're okay with characters from comic books, novels, web novels, webcomics, picture books, live action and animated TV and film, video games, commercials - as long as the character is fictional and as long as they come from a pre-existing source. We might make accommodations to allow OCs in the future, but we have no concrete plans in place. We will never be allowing non-fictional individuals, although we do refer to thinly veiled analogues for real celebrities and politicians now and then, usually simply by spoonerising their names because we're ~smart~ like that. (The most notorious example is Ben Gleck.)
So, with that out of the way, on to the complicated stuff.
First off: where to? XI isn't a jamjar game; the characters are not restricted to one place and, although it's based around a school, that school isn't the limit of its setting. Currently, the three main options for your character are the Xavier Institute, the Brotherhood of Mutants, and Independent.
The Xavier Institute is currently the busiest part of the game. Characters apped into other roles/positions/situations are considered 'Independent' even if they operate under orders from another character or within an established group like S.H.I.E.L.D., the Brotherhood, or the Avengers. They have a lower activity requirement than Institute characters.
APPING INTO THE XAVIER INSTITUTE
That's what the XI in our name stands for, so understandably the Xavier Institute is kind of the game's hub. There's more on the place itself on its wiki page; what we're dealing with here is what you need to do if you want to app someone there.
⊗ STUDENTS!
Are probably the easiest thing to app here because they can be basically any kind of character as long as they're 18 or under, and as long as they're a mutant. (If they are neither of these things in canon ... well, that's where the whole 'AU' part comes into it.) The vast majority of students at the Xavier Institute are mutants. There are a very small minority of students who're things like space aliens, robots, or genetically engineered or cursed humans, and an even smaller minority of normal humans - if you want your student character to not be a mutant, you'll have to come up with a workable reason for them being at the Institute. Thanks to its outrageously charming Endowment Board (Warren Worthington III and Aimery de Courfeyrac, whose combined might could charm the body part off an animal), the Institute has the funds to fly students over from pretty much anywhere if their family can't afford it. (It also provides its many orphans with a reasonable allowance).
⊗ TEACHERS!
Should be either mutants, people with an interest in pro-mutant activism, or actual teachers. A lot of them are people who used to be superheroes, but a lot of them aren't. When people ask "are any of these people qualified to teach" we tend to stick our fingers in our ears because it spoils the fun, so try not to worry about that too much.
Classes at the Xavier Institute range from normal things like History and English and Biology to power-specific classes like Flight and Illusions ... sometimes there are also classes like Aerial Combat and Firearms, though, so if you want to pick a pretty far-out subject for your character to teach nobody's going to hold that against you. Just make sure to check what classes there are beforehand, so you don't wind up picking a subject too close to one we already have and stepping on people's toes. We don't have a problem with multiple teachers for one subject, but you might want to make sure it's okay with the player of the character already teaching a class before you decide your character's going to teach it too.
A complete list of classes is here; we recommend you pick a class that is currently on the "Classes without teachers" list rather than making up some random class to teach. A character doesn't have to be on top of their powers to be a teacher - or any other kind of member of staff. Some of the staff teach in exchange for using the school's facilities to get a better handle on their mutant abilities.
⊗ OTHER STAFF!
The Xavier Institute could always use more housekeeping, kitchen and admin staff. Also counsellors. And doctors and nurses. And actual therapists. Again, these are pretty likely to be mutants or people involved somehow in mutant affairs, although they could well have some kind of ulterior motive ...
However, it's important to bear in mind that it's highly unlikely that Xavier will hire any staff who he considers to be a potential threat, and he is a very perceptive man. If you want to play a member of staff of any kind, either their heart should be in the right place ... or they should be very good at hiding the fact that it's not. If your adult character is very blatantly evil, that doesn't mean you can't app them: you're welcome to give them a role outside the school - or, indeed, to AU them as a teenager.
⊗ MY CHARACTER IS TOO OLD TO BE A STUDENT BUT NOT REALLY QUALIFIED FOR ANYTHING ELSE!
This is an AU, you can make them younger if you want. If you don't, though ... well, the Xavier Institute does not have any college stuff going down (yet), but college-age characters who need help controlling their powers are welcome at the Institute and can probably receive some one-on-one tutelage both in learning to use their powers and in other areas - they may also be able to take on a mentor group.
Many members of the Xavier Institute's staff have been X-Men in the past. If you want this to go for your character too, go ahead and do it, but remember to check the X-Men page on the XI wiki first.
APPING INTO THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS GENOSHA
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Brotherhood has recently relocated itself to Genosha, an island off the coast of Africa that until recently was a relatively prosperous nation secretly built on the backs of SLAVE LABOUR. Mutant slave labour, to be exact. About 15-20 years ago the Genoshan government started testing every newborn infant for the X-Gene; those who tested positive were removed from their parents' care (the parents were usually told that some kind of tragedy had befallen the child) and raised, in inhibitor collars, as slaves. The vast majority were used for manual labour by relatively large businesses or government organisations, with a few being the property of exceptionally well-connected and wealthy individuals.
The Brotherhood of Mutants found out about this through the actions of a couple of their spies, and set out to right this wrong; unfortunately their attack on Genosha went horribly wrong and one mutant suddenly having their inhibitor collar removed basically caused a massive explosion to engulf the entire island. Most people who lived there are now dead and towns across the island have been destroyed.
Magneto has claimed Genosha for mutantkind and announced himself its ruler. The island is open to mutants from all over the world - provided they're willing to put a bit of work in to help rebuild it from the ashes. The whole thing is kind of like a post-apocalyptic commune where everyone has powers and you are ruled over by a man in a funny helmet.
AS SUCH, characters who fit into the "Brotherhood" slot fall into three loose categories:
⊗ EX-BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS
These guys are the ones who joined the Brotherhood when it was still an underground mutant terrorist group. Either they really believed in Magneto's ideals (Mutants and humans can never live together in peace, human society will never work in mutants' favour, or just mutants are better than humans), OR they wanted an excuse to fight stuff and the Brotherhood let them do that more than other options did, OR they were rescued by the Brotherhood in some capacity and didn't have any other options.
Also by underground we mean underwater because they spent most of the last few months in a submarine. New characters can still be apped into this category, but the assumption will generally have to be that they were away from the group on some kind of mission elsewhere and have only just returned to its folds.
⊗ EX-SLAVES
There are a couple hundred mutants on Genosha who used to be slaves. A few are old enough (20+) to dimly remember childhoods in which they were not slaves; most have never been anything else. Those born into slavery will have never used their powers before they were freed (and probably didn't know what their powers were, unless they're overt physical mutations that they were born with), will not have been educated except to follow orders and carry out the usually menial tasks they were put to work for (most of them cannot read), and they don't have names, only numbers. HOWEVS Magneto sees education as very important, and all freed slaves are encouraged to pick a name, or given one. (It is probably a really stupid name; see below.)
⊗ NEW ARRIVALS
Mutants from all kinds of backgrounds all over the world are welcome to come to Genosha. Magneto isn't getting all that picky about who he lets in, so while plenty of new arrivals might well be mutants who do really think it is in their best interests to go, some of them may be spies. JUST SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
If you're not sure how your character is even getting to Genosha, no worries - Magneto has his ways, and he wants to help each and every one of you. (Basically there are secret pick-up points in Madagascar, Seychelles and mainland Africa.)
A NOTE ON NAMES: "Magneto" is a stupid name. So are "the Operative", and "Inferno", and every other stupid superhero codename ever. Unfortunately, those are the kinds of names you get around here. Everyone who comes to Genosha is encouraged to START ANEW and ABANDON THE NAMES THAT HUMANITY GAVE THEM, which in practice means calling yourself ISOTOPE or FIRESTRIKE. Please bear in mind that this is taking place in a comic book-style universe, so, while some people may remark that this is silly, precisely how preposterous it is should occur to people ICly far less frequently than is realistic or even plausible.
Unlike the Xavier Institute, there is very little room on Genosha for characters who aren't mutants. If you want to app a non-mutant character into Genosha, please talk to a mod.
APPING INDEPENDENT CHARACTERS
Characters not affiliated with either of these groups can do any number of fascinating things, but here are some suggestions for things that will ensure they regularly have something to do:
⊗ Running or working for some kind of business in Salem Center (the nearest town to the Xavier Institute and oft-frequented by its students and staff).
⊗ Being a villain of some kind. There are a good few existing villains you can work for or cooperate with (for example Facilier the Shadow-Man, or Albert Wesker) - and, even if you work alone, bank robbery and diamond heist threads are bound to get a good bit of attention.
⊗ Being a superhero. There are PC-run groups, like the teen Justice Squad or the Japan-based Shinigami, or NPC groups like the Avengers. You get to thwart bad guys and have wacky adventures and team-ups with other superheroes! All over the world! Disappointed by the fact that the Xavier Institute has yet to run a school trip to the Savage Land? APP A SUPERHERO. GET THERE FIRST.
⊗ Same goes for people who work for S.H.I.E.L.D. If you want to app one, you probably won't be the last, and we're really not going to stop you.
We'd really like to see more groups outside the Institute and Brotherhood. If you want to, say, app someone as a Salem Center-based cop, it's worth asking around to see if anyone's willing to help you staff the police station. If you want to start a gang of supervillains, see if there's anyone else who's been wanting to app a bad guy who you could cooperate with! Same goes for teams of heroes. If you don't know where to start asking, feel free to drop into our AIM chat xichat (sometimes it's not working, in which case you might want to check 'mutantparty') or make a post at mutantprom. (Even if you're not in the game yet!)
POWERS
The majority of characters at xi_rpg have superpowers of some description, but, thanks to the nature of the AU, a lot of characters aren't going to have powers that are the same as the ones they have (or don't have) in their canon.
Some characters' powers might be easy to pick. For example, it makes sense for a character who is canonically pyrokinetic to be pyrokinetic in this RP, and it goes without saying that it makes no real sense to give a character the power to talk to animals when in canon their only power is eye beams (although, hey, if you wanted to argue the case for it, we'd probably let you do it) - but sometimes it's not that easy. You might want to choose something that reflects their personality, or the skills they have in canon - or you might just want to pick something else entirely. As long as it's not gratuitous author appeal (giving a character a power you have a hard-on for, for whatever reason, when there's no canonical reason to do it) and as long as they're not overpowered as a result of your choices, we'll probably be okay with it.
A note on quantity of powers: one power is a good number of powers to have. Two is acceptable, especially if the powers are related somehow; we tend to be a little disapproving of characters with two powers that don't really "go together" unless they're absolutely vital for the character to be who they are.
Generally speaking, if you want to give more than two powers to a character, especially a young mutant, you had better have a damn good reason for it.
⊗ Multiple applications of the same basic power are fine. For example, both Beast Boy and Tiana can, if they want to, fly, breathe underwater, drastically alter their size, and possess strength in excess of a human's, among many other things, but they still only have one power: shapeshifting.
⊗ Having several powers that are related or "go together" somehow, either functionally or thematically, is generally okay, especially if the powers are minor.
A few other things to bear in mind:
⊗ Just because your character has a power in canon doesn't mean they're automatically allowed it at XI. If a character can cast a variety of different magic spells, for example, pick just one that you feel fits them the best/is the most interesting/whatever and which is easily workable as a mutant power, don't try to give them all of them.
⊗ If your character doesn't have any powers at all in canon you can just make one up for them, but don't give them multiple unrelated powers or we'll reply to your app asking you to change them.
⊗ Very powerful abilities are best given to characters for whom it will be IC to not use them in excess. If it would be OOC for your character to not fuck everyone's shit up constantly given half the chance, don't give them a power that would allow them to do that.
⊗ If you're having trouble deciding on a character's powers, this list may be helpful. If you're still at a loss, feel free to ask us to help you out.
BACKGROUNDS
Possibly one of the most difficult parts of an AU app, and the one we get called on to help with the most. No worries if you're having trouble - we will be RIGHT THERE to give you a hand. With all our hands.
First of all, you should read the setting page for an idea of the world you're bringing the character into. The game timeline is also worth checking out.
Secondly, you're going to want to check the taken characters page to see if there are already characters in the game from the same series as the character you want to app, and, if there are, check those character's info to see if you want to synch your character's history with theirs!
Thirdly ... well, you're going to have to think a bit. Obviously a canon background which involves the character believing they're a normal person until they discover some kind of Puberty Superpower will require less changes than that of a character raised as a slave by alien robots on an intergalactic warship after their parents were killed by terrorist space wasps, but basically as long as your character's AU backstory bears some resemblance to their canon one, and doesn't have, for instance, massive gratuitous trauma that they didn't have in canon, you should be okay. If you need to bend it, or simplify or omit things, to fit it into this AU, that's absolutely fine.
If you're apping a character as a student who has a long history of exciting shenanigans behind them in canon, it might be best to have them come from an equivalent to the very beginning of any adventure-filled character arc. If they're going to be a member of staff, or a senior member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, or a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent or a superhero or something, you have more free rein to give them wacky shenanigans in their backstory, but you might want to hold off on having them have saved the entire universe multiple times.
FINALLY, a little character appin' FAQ to help you out with any uncertainties you might have (or rather, to reassure you that you can do outlandish things).
WHAT DO I DO IF I WANT TO APP ...
... a character who was played here before, but was dropped?
That's a little bit up to you and a little bit up to the people playing the characters they interacted with. You can either read up on their old threads and keep their old CR and memories, or you can ask the other people involved if they're willing to retcon those out. Alternatively, if the others want to keep the old CR and you don't, you can probably come up with some way to work around it. Seriously, go wild with that, we're a comics-based game, we won't care. They lost their memories in some unlikely accident? That's fine! The one we had originally wasn't really them, it was a Skrull or a clone or an LMD (Life Model Decoy/identical robot imposter)? EVEN BETTER! Seriously - seriously - whatever you like.
On that note, we probably don't need to tell you that if the character died when they left or something, you can just come up with an excuse for them to come back to life or to have secretly not been dead this entire time.
... a temporary character?
We are totally fine with people apping characters for the sake of one plot they want to do - whether that's a villain who'll drop off the map after he's thwarted or a character from a dystopian future who needs to change the past to stop their crapsack world from coming into being who'll bugger off back to the future once she's got the help she needs. Even if they wind up dying or ceasing to have ever existed, it's not like nobody will ever be able to bring them back later on if they want to.
... a character from the same series as another character I play?
That's totes fine. It's not like they'll necessarily even share any background, what with this being an AU and all. Tagging yourself all the time is very much discouraged, but if you can pull that sort of thing off without tagging yourself too much then go for it. Generally speaking, though, if all or nearly all your characters are from the same series, that might be a problem. (Note: this doesn't go for the Marvel or DC universes overall on account of their being so sprawling and vast.)
... a character who's on the NPCs list?
This depends on the character. Some characters, like Professor Xavier or Magneto, need to be mod-controlled for plot reasons. Others are simply on the NPC list because we need them to exist in certain roles - the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, for instance, were characters we felt it necessary to include as superheroes to give the AU's background goings-on a more traditionally Marvel-y flavour, but we've since accepted apps for Tony Stark (Iron Man), Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Steve Rogers (Captain America). Basically, if we can trust you and you're willing to work with the AU background we've got for the character already, we'd be more than willing to let you at it.
... a character who's related to or involved with one or more that we already have?
Talk to the players of the other characters, because they might well have background stuff that you'll need to take into account. If you guys work out something new between yourselves, retconning that into the existing character's background is fine, but remember that the mods need to be informed of any significant changes to backgrounds - this is to make sure that nobody edits anything in that we wouldn't have allowed in on an application.
... a different version of a character you already have?
Acceptable under some circumstances, but there has to be a canon precedent for there being two of the character or for one of them coming from an alternate reality or something - for example, we have two of Squall Leonheart, but one of them calls himself Leon and comes from an alternate reality that was consumed by a mysterious entity known only as 'the Darkness'.
Other acceptable reasons for doubles would include cloning and time travel, but we'd definitely like you to talk to us about it first.
If we're talking two versions of a character who aren't at all alike, for instance Merlin from the BBC series and Merlin from Disney's Sword in the Stone, you can probably get away with making them just two separate people with the same name, especially if their powers aren't that similar. This can sometimes also go for reimaginings of comic book characters where their separate incarnations are sufficiently different, but you'll really have to argue your case to us on that one.
... a character I invented myself?
Unless you're a published writer we're afraid the answer's no. We may allow OCs at some point in the future, but for now characters have to come from an existing source.
... a character from space?
We have a ton of those, you'll probably be fine; as long as you have a reason for them being on Earth, you're golden. A few examples: Koriand'r (although she's since been dropped) was an exiled alien princess who came to Earth looking for help, Karolina Dean and Teddy Altman are aliens raised on Earth who think they're human, and all the dragons we have (from Pern and Temeraire) are aliens. Space is a big place, so feel free to just decide your character's canon space planet exists somewhere out there in the game universe, but if you want to AU a non-Marvel character as part of a Marvel alien race that's fine too.
... a robot?
Again, that's totally okay as long as you explain where they're from and what they're doing here. Currently we don't have any robots, but we used to have the Vision and we've had a few other robots around as NPCs and in backstories, such as the Doctor's dog K-9 and Bob, a miniature AI inside a human skull.
... a dragon?
The nature of dragons in this RP means we have to keep them kind of controlled; if you're interested in apping a character who's a dragon, please speak to a mod about it. This doesn't go for human characters who can transform into dragons, or humans with dragonlike features.
... a god?
As long as they're not from a contemporary religion, and as long as you've got a reason for them not being off in Valhalla or Olympus or wev. Moreover, they should be from some established fictional interpretation of the pantheon, however inaccurate, for instance Marvel's Thor, or Disney's Hercules. Like anything else, they'll need to be AU'd to fit the setting, but we're willing to let Marvel's god business get a bit mangled in the name of crossfandom AU clusterfuckery.
... an animal?
As long as they're sapient, sure. If you just want to have a character's pet around, you're better NPCing them as just that, a pet (like Power Girl's horrible cat, Simon's hamster Boota, or Harry Dresden's cat Mister), although bear in mind that students are technically not allowed to have pets that they cannot keep comfortably in a smallish cage, vivarium or aquarium. If you definitely want to just app an animal, though, there are a few routes you could take - either anthropomorphise them entirely, make them a human who's become trapped in animal form for some reason or as a human who can take animal form (Amaterasu and our Wolf's Rain cast are mutants with the power to shapeshift into wolves), or make them an animal who for some reason can speak (for example Dug can speak thanks to the collar Tony Stark made for him). Whatever fits best for your character!
Please note, though, that even if the animal is sapient, you can't app a pet for your own character.
... a character from an alternate reality?
Only when there's a precedent in their canon for that character traversing dimensions. 'Dimension-hopping is canonically possible in their universe' doesn't count - it has to be characters who do actually go from one alternate reality to another in their canon (and as a big part of their story and character). Sora from Kingdom Hearts, for instance, would be an acceptable 'verse-traversing superhero, as would Marvel's Exiles, or Doctor Strange. Examples of characters from alternate realities who we already have in this game include Leon Leonheart and Power Girl, both of whom came into XI's reality from ones that were destroyed, and whose realities were both destroyed in their canons.
... a clone?
If the clone is a canon one, or if you feel like cloning would be a good way to explain a similar phenomenon in your character's canon, be our guest.
... a character from the future/past?
Ideally characters from the past or future ought to be AU'd into the present wherever possible, but we get that sometimes the time period significantly affects who a character is, and we're totes willing to accommodate characters who've been brought here from the past for that reason - we already have a couple of characters from the past (Laurence and Temeraire are from the early 1800s). Feel free to either claim time travel or stasis. As for characters from the future, X-Men canon is so full of characters who've travelled to the present from future dystopias that it'd be pretty much criminal if we weren't okay with that sort of thing. If you want to make it an I AM HERE TO PREVENT THE FUTURE FROM HAPPENING YOU MUST HELP ME SAVE THE WORLD sort of deal, that is absolutely fine - bring your plot idea to the mods and we'll see what we can do for you.
Please note: While apps are now constantly open at the moment, you cannot app more than two characters in one month - and only one of those characters can be at the Institute - the other will have to be Independent (including Brotherhood or Sanctuary).
OK, take me to the app page!