Children

From Mizahar Lore

In all roleplaying environments, Children are present. Child status depends on race and how long it takes a race to age to maturity. Please see individual race pages for more information on what is considered a 'child' in specific racial situations.

Child Player Characters

Player Characters as children are definitely allowed in Mizahar's environment.

However, if one starts out as a literal baby - just born - a PC would not have any starting skills nor any starting coin or items. They are utterly dependent upon their biological parents. Since they are unable to hold jobs or have careers initially, their living expenses must be paid by their parents at the level they are being maintained. All their items come from their parents and all their skills and lores must be learned in character through roleplay. Parents don't necessarily have to be biological birth mothers and fathers. They can be all sorts of people assigned these roles from family members to outside of the box PC or NPC roles.

We discourage infant PCs for this reason. Starting out as child PCs at a level where there is some sort of self care possible is far more agreeable. However, before age 12, Child PCs are required to have Parent or guardian NPCs that care for them. If they do not have this situation, they will not survive in Mizahar's harsh environment. Just because a parent or guardian NPC is required doesn't mean the NPC needs to be a traditional parent or the biological mother or father of the child. This NPC could be a slave owner, gang leader, or even an older sibling/friend.

As an infant, a child PC is going to be helpless. They aren't going to be learning skills or doing anything useful, because they will be a baby. Babies start out generally being cradled by their mothers, laying down for rest, and maybe if they are old enough they will be laid down to play with their toys. They are generally immobile. Baby animals aren't much different; chicks are confined to their nests, awaiting on mothers or fathers to feed them. Cats and dogs are born blind, left to blindly seek out their parents and nurse. Those are common animal types. Moving into cattle and deer, the newborn might be able to walk around ungainly, but they are STILL bound to their parents.

Toddlers are a bit more flexible. They learn to walk and talk, but they aren't going to be learning the skills they need in adulthood until they are children of five or six because that's an age a child can actually show more than a passing interest in what the parents are doing. For things requiring dangerous work, like hunting and forging, they should be older so they know what they are doing, about ten or so.

Child PCs must RP the level of their age of their race. If a child PC is a Kelvic, they age at the rate their Kelvic animal does and become aware and independent at the rate the animal does. This often takes seasons after the birth for the PC to even be able to be roleplayed as more than a baby in swaddling cloth. It depends on the animal absolutely.

Child NPCs

Many PCs either produce children or adopt them through the course of their roleplay. Special rules apply to Child NPCs. They do not have to pay Living Expenses before age 12. They are considered 'dependents' on their parents or guardians and fall under their lifestyles. Child NPCs since they have no opportunities to gain skills through roleplay start out with the standard NPC skill (traveling or stationary) set since they age over time. Child NPCs can be adopted, but at the time of adoption, they MUST convert their stats to a starting normal PC skillset as long as they are starting of an age beyond infancy.