Ba Shared Topic: Identity

The Shared Topic this week at Blog Azeroth was suggested by Akabeko:

How does your character define themself? What part of their identity is most important to their personality and self-presentation?
In meatspace, we have so many affiliations, it’s anyone’s guess whether we consider ourselves a tuba player first, or a student, a Gators fan, a New Yorker, a mother, a nerd, a liberal. Our identities are comprised of so many different aspects of life that it’s hard to tell which parts different people will choose to define themselves.
In game, there are less game-related ways to identify.
You can identify as:
your class – your spec
your race – a particular subgroup (Mag’har, Wildhammer)
your faction – a faction other than Horde/Alliance

I confess to having read other posts while working on mine. Several had good additions to identity, including:
your look (From Hairstyles to Outfits)

your tabard
your title

Several posts demonstrated how a person's real-life identity influences their character's. What struck me most was how Warcraft is an escape for me, allowing me to wear a personality very different from IRL. I can be an Extrovert. I can be brave and charge into a fight. I can wear my heart on my sleeve in stark contrast to what I would do IRL. In fact, I *love* using in-game features to better let others know what my character is like.

At level 46 in Platemail

In Fel Iron Plate in Outland

Kallixta is a Paladin. Whether a Tank or Healer, she's still almost always in armor. She just isn't comfortable in casual wear. Instead when she is relaxing, I have outfits in white, grey or low-level greens that are still plate like armor. I recently started collecting the Soldier's set because despite being mail, it's still obviously something to fight in.

Kallixta frequently wears her Guild's Tabard, a proud statement of her identity that I didn't see many mention. The Guild reflects her choice of association. She's a member of a circle that RP together, fight in Dungeons together and try to Raid together.

That Kallixta is a dwarf was never her selection. It's something she doesn't think about. It just is. It influences her thinking, but her class is far more important to her identity. Her Alliance identity has waxed and waned at times, being more important in the Outland where zone PvP was something I enjoyed and less important in Northrend where in character she felt the threat of the Lich King overrode partisan faction feelings. I suspect such changes will occur again in future, especially as I hope to participate in more battlegrounds soon.

I'm going to mention Aldonza, as I often do. She was intended to be a bank alt and still is. However, Kallixta's RP storytelling has frequently used Aldonza as a device which as a side effect has inspired me to develop an identity beyond a mule. The personality that appeared in my mind explains why she spends her time at the auction house and the like. An original Bank Alt on a different server wore things that proclaimed her banker identity, but that just isn't Aldonza. She spends most of her time in Ironforge despite being a human. Being a human living in the dwarf capital resonates with my time as an American living in England. She's aware of her differences. She's evolving and I'm curious just what might become important to her.

I've rambled much longer than I expected!