A roleplay idea.

[Ashaya]

An idea popped into my head this morning, and like many other ideas I get, I wanted to see if anyone else thought it was good.

Basically I want to roleplay as a blind dragon, with acute hearing abilities. The idea was partially inspired by watching reruns of Avatar, the Last Airbender, but I think I could make this character unique.

A few things I'm not sure would work-

• Flight. How would she be able to hear well enough to be stable in the air? Unless she had more than a few crash landings, I don't see it working. Although she could rely on memory... I'm just not sure.
  
• Crafting. Without being able to see the materials, or see the resource nodes, how would she craft? Unless she relied on memory again.
  
• Communication. Running around saying she's blind wouldn't work for her, as a dragon of high ego, I think she wouldn't want to flaunt a potential weakness. She could be a reclusive character, never revealing her blindness unless to allies or if another character seemed trustworthy. It may be hard to hide though, as she will walk into a few stationary objects quite often.
  
• Battle. Even with excellent hearing, I think she would need to be casting spells, not fighting with tooth and claw. Imagine being blind in the middle of a battlefield, with so many cries and strike sounds resonating around you, and you had to figure out what to hit in the middle of that chaos.
  She would need some way to know exactly where the enemy is, unless she was fighting solo, then she could just cast spells in the precise direction of the target. But if she was with others, she would need some sort of strategy to not hit her allies. She could attack the target from a side that nobody else was attacking, and would need to plan the battle beforehand. She would need to stay at maximum range, where she could tell if another enemy was sneaking behind her.

I was also thinking of a variation of the idea, making a blind bloodmage biped, and having them sense the life energy around them to see. I like the idea of being a dragon more, I have always loved them.

I have great respect and awe of the blind, they are amazing and adaptive people. One of my favorite books is called Follow My Leader, it's about a boy who damages his eyes in a firecracker accident. I wont spoil the rest, so look the book up sometime, it's a great read.

Thank you so much for reading this, I hope to see your feedback and/or ideas soon!

Edit: I misspelled the title.

[LungTien Temeraire]

This is a good idea, Ashaya, I think

If your character doesn't see, she could rely on her ears instead, increasing her hearing ability. She could poke the crafting materials with her claws to hear the sound, maybe. She could also learn to separate the sounds and differenciate them, to fight better in melee.

I'd also point a movie with a blind superhero, called Daredevil.

Anyway, the best thing, I think, is to ask people who are roleplaying blind characters in this game. I have seen some in the past, but they didn't come back for a long time...

[Akrion]

I was also thinking of a variation of the idea, making a blind bloodmage biped, and having them sense the life energy around them to see. I like the idea of being a dragon more, I have always loved them.

My character, Akrion, is infact a bloodmage that has trained himself to perceive spirit magic through sight as a sort of permanent overlay to his normal vision. So I can say that an idea like you have is absolutely viable. :3
(As a side note: If you mean sense the life energy around them as in life magic, bloodmages don't get life magic. If you mean sense the life energy around them as in 'blood' (for lack of a better word) then that works.)

I only know of two other people that played a blind character, (Dragons at that), and they were Hraefn and Kandrin. They were awesome characters to RP with, and the concept of their blindness definitely added an interesting twist to their characters. Though, they both lost their sight (Kandrin was blinded by Xeffer's acid breath-thing, and Hraefn had her eyes gouged out) rather than having not had it to begin with.

I think your RP idea has a great chance of becoming a really good character. If I were to make a suggestion, it would be to just try and not make your character too much alike one from other canon. It doesn't sound like you plan on doing this, I'm just mentioning it as your character will struggle to be taken seriously if you try to make your character an Istarian version of *Character from a well known series*. And don't worry about it if that's not your plan, because really only becomes noticeable (And to some, annoying) when people are actively trying to do that or make a fairly obvious copy of some abilities or traits of an existing character or series (Imagine a character doing a kamehameha in Istaria).

To clarify (Because I'm really trying not to come off as rude or judgemental as giving suggestions/advice like this to new players often seems to put me (and others) in that light regardless) :
Taking inspiration from a series or character (Such as Avatar: The Last Airbender) is fine so long as you don't overdo it. Really there are very few completely original ideas in the world (if any) because people will take inspiration from other places and apply it elsewhere, so taking inspiration from Avatar: The Last Airbender is not in itself a bad thing. However, when you do this you need to be careful that you only use inspiration and you don't actually try to just make that character in another format.

The goal is to make it so when outsiders are watching your character, it's not obvious where you're taking your inspirations from.

[Raptress]

Don't forget, dragons also most likely have a keen sense of smell, which would possibly be even better if it's needing to compensate for the lack of sight.

You mention her doing things by "memory," but I didn't see anywhere that said when this character would have lost her sight. Was she born without it, or did she lose it later in life? It's an important question, as that detail can have a huge effect on how this character perceives her affliction and what tools she will have to deal with it.

Also, as Akrion said, do be cautious about not taking too much inspiration from one place. I don't know the Avatar series other than in name really, so I don't recognize where the inspiration for this character is coming from, but it doesn't seem like there's much in this idea that sounds too specific.

[Reckless]

Hrm..A few good ideas here already.

As already mentioned, dragons generally have an acute sense of smell so perhaps you can work that into your crafting. The metals, rock, etc...perhaps throwing off a distinct scent of their own?

I think the idea of being able to sense "energy" would work in your favor as well. Everything living or undead should have some sort of energy, be it natural or blight. Therefore, being able to sense or even see these energies with the minds eye to make out objects would be a great way to see (with the mind) without actually seeing (with the eyes).

As far as communication goes, you would have to subtly work the blindness into your RPs. Having an ailment or something "different" about you will have to be repeatedly mentioned in some form with each new individual you come across until your character is established enough that people remember/know this fact about you. Once they know you, you need not mention it again unless you -need- to.

Hope this helps. I mostly elaborated and supported some ideas already mentioned here, but either way, I think it's a neat idea.

[Ashaya]

Thank you all so much for the replies!

I haven't given much thought as to when she lost her sight, I just came up with the idea today, so there is room for expansion.

I didn't think of her scent capabilities, its an awesome idea and it could solve a lot of problems for her getting around. Touch is an awesome sense too, she can recognize the different textures and weight of materials.

I'm really thinking of making her now, I wasn't so sure before, but I think I can do it.
I will try my hardest to make her unique, and not a Mary Sue or OP.

You guys are all awesome. Thanks again for the replies.

[Frith-Rae]

Oh aye, we've seen some great blind RPers over the years and dont think it will hamper your dragon's abilities to do ANYHTING (unless you want it too).

IRL there are plenty of examples of people being able to do everyhting a "seeing" person can do, and sometimes better. And don't think it will hamper your dragon's fighting - there have been great blind martial arts masters and the like who certainly had no problem taking out squads of people.

You just have to take full advantage of those other senses. I would think tooth and claw fighting, actually, would be easier than throwing spells at range. Blind fighters (and blind people) tend to develop that 'Sixth sense' of being able to tell distance/position of the people and items around them. Wether its through smell and hearing becoming so accute that they hear the slightest shift in air pressure, or wether its the sense of touch becomign so accute that it feels the movement of air and the pressure of another person's warmth - for whatever reason - they are masters of their arts and in no way limited (whereas I imagine if they tried to shoot a gun at someone 30 feet away that would be more difficult - lol).

Flying - easy peasy - your dragon's sense of smell and hearing, along with touch (we're aware of airpressure and wind even if we don't feel it) would enable her top fly just as well (if not better in some circumstances) than a sighted dragon. Also, blind people very adeptly construct and remember maps in their head of places they navigate everyday. And like bats or birds, I imagine a blind dragon would have a fantastic sense of direction no matter the situation. Just because we don't fully understand how birds trans-navigate the world to end up in the tree they were born in - doesn't mean you can't use similiar logic to reason how your dragon is easily able to fly and run and walk and navigate itself (oh, I can smell the grass from Chiconis from here, the wind from the north brings it to me...).LOL

Crafting - again - no problem - not only utilizing the "mapping" idea of fields you've been too before, but you could conceivably smell or taste (upon the air) the varying types of craft materials (just cuz humans can't doesn't mean animals don't). And yes your sense of touch would easily allow you to weigh and craft and shape - plenty of blind artists!

As for being proud - no problem - that's being a dragon after all . I would imagine her eyes may look/act different (as many blind creatures do), or she may keep them closed - which would tell others of her disability. However, that doesn't mean she has to speak or let on - as you said - her actions would be probably more careful, which she would act as "graceful and elegant" instead of "careful" . But in flight or in fighting, she can be as gifted as any (or more than others) so that her blindness is not at all evident.

Many things you can play with, and such characters are always intersting (I have also known great mute dragons as well as blind) to RP out with their special challenges. But don't at all think it means you have to limit anything about what you want her to do (wether crafting or fighting style or not bumping into objects), for the basis of reality - never underestimate the abilities of the other senses to compensate and sometimes, improve upon, sighted abilities.

Good luck and have fun!

[AguaRush]

i think this is a splendid idea. and the suggestions offered are great
if you are going from a sort of Avatar inspired themed i do believe Toph could sense motion of her attackers so that could help the dragon/naka you play
to percieve and attack his/her attackers or even friends.

she/he could even been confidient like toph and not believe they need help :P from this apparent "weakness"
as for flying.. that could be a bit more tricky but what about eco location like a bat would use only with a roar or a clicking noise of this characters own. :P

yay ideas!

[LungTien Temeraire]

Thank you all so much for the replies!

I haven't given much thought as to when she lost her sight, I just came up with the idea today, so there is room for expansion.

I didn't think of her scent capabilities, its an awesome idea and it could solve a lot of problems for her getting around. Touch is an awesome sense too, she can recognize the different textures and weight of materials.

I'm really thinking of making her now, I wasn't so sure before, but I think I can do it.
I will try my hardest to make her unique, and not a Mary Sue or OP.

You guys are all awesome. Thanks again for the replies.

Don't forget that some blind animals can "see" with their ears, by sending sounds and getting it back by echo, depending of the other bodies/things' location, size, nature,...

[Frith-Rae]

and actually Humans can do echo location as well - its a new type of training, but I've read reports of several blind people who were able to learn how to eco-locate using a "click" sound out of their mouth and then listening (or from anything really).

So even if the dragon isn't subsonic like a bat, she can click her claws or make some noise and ecolocate .

[Akrion]

Partial echo-locating, anyway.

[Frith-Rae]

Well just saying its not a huge stretch to say RP the dragon being able to direct itself in flight via something similar to echo-locate, or smell/taste of the wind (ala how birds maybe do it..), or even as some have theorized the way birds can do it - an internal sense of the position of the earth and where they are on it...lol.

She doesn't have to RP it that she can't fly without other-dragon guidance and limit herself that way. Many options that wouldn't sound looney

[Shian]

• Flight. How would she be able to hear well enough to be stable in the air? Unless she had more than a few crash landings, I don't see it working. Although she could rely on memory... I'm just not sure.

Sure why not? Blind people have to use memory and counting the number of steps they take. Unlike blind people though, she doesn't have to rely on how long her stride is. I think she'd be okay for short flights, but I'd imagine her as not really wanting to go off the ground too much or otherwise be very slow. No velocity scales for her

• Crafting. Without being able to see the materials, or see the resource nodes, how would she craft? Unless she relied on memory again.

That's easy. Metal has a smell. Wisps probably smell. You could probably also find wisps and such smelling for things nearby like water in NT.

• Battle. Even with excellent hearing, I think she would need to be casting spells, not fighting with tooth and claw. Imagine being blind in the middle of a battlefield, with so many cries and strike sounds resonating around you, and you had to figure out what to hit in the middle of that chaos.
  She would need some way to know exactly where the enemy is, unless she was fighting solo, then she could just cast spells in the precise direction of the target. But if she was with others, she would need some sort of strategy to not hit her allies. She could attack the target from a side that nobody else was attacking, and would need to plan the battle beforehand. She would need to stay at maximum range, where she could tell if another enemy was sneaking behind her.

How about the ability to sense gifted? I can count a few characters that would like to play on that and find the ability useful.

As for creatures, well ever play single player games? They all make a very distinct noise and often betray where they are.