In order to make life easier on all of us, please read this completely before posting your biography, and comply to what it says.

Before being raised to the second tier, you must have a complete, approved biography. A biography is considered approved once two site leaders (Amyrlin, Keeper, M'hael, Mahdi, Haran, or Nosane) have approved. Approved biographies are marked with: ~

The proper Bio title format is this: BIO::(Character Name Here) the topic description should be your current rank, to be updated by an admin as you progress.

If you wish to put your biography as a flashback within an RP (like your character is doing something, then remembers his/her life), please make the actual RP part of it italic, and the history normal font. It's easier to find the actual history if it's done this way, and quite frankly, that's what I really want to see.
IE Sapphira walked through the halls, thinking back on the years of her life.
HISTORY HERE (not in italics)
Sapphira sighed and shook off her reverie, there was plenty to do without all this nostalgia.

When you write your bio, please include the following at the top, before the actual history in order to make it easy to reference in the future.
Name:
Age:
Nationality: ((Anyone who wishes to be of the Aiel, Sea Folk, Seanchan or Shara must PM an admin to get permisson! Please include the name of the admin who approved you. EX: Nationality: Shara (approved by Mother)))
Height: ((Please list in feet/inches and cm))
Weight: ((Please list in pounds and kg))
Hair color/length:
Eye color:
Personality:

Channelers (Aes Sedai or Asha'man Paths):
***All channelers must read and follow the directions in this thread in regards to their One Power strength.***
Block: If applicable, state under which conditions your character can channel

Gaidin Path:
Anyone taking the Gaidin Path may specialize in one weapon but may NOT be a blademaster or any equivalent level of skill. Only Gaidin are allowed to be near that rank, and then it is rare. So do not make your character an amazing weapons artist, you are new to the Towers, and here to be trained, do not make your time as a recruit pointless. Please note any special abilities.

History:

Your biography must be approved by two admins before it is concidered "approved". You can RP as soon as your biography is approved by one admin. Your biography must be completed and approved by two admins before you are raised to the second tier. As you progress through the ranks you will add to your bio, about your time at the first tier (novice/soldier/recruit), and then at the second (Accepted/Dedicated). You may add to your bio at any time, whether it be before your final raising or after, if you so wish. Please add a new post to your thread to let us know when you've edited your bio (something like "Added a bit to her childhood :)").

Try to make your biography as long as possible without being repetitive. Tell about his/her life before coming to the Tower, perhaps a significant event in his/her past. If you don't really know what to do, you can always read other bios to help you out. Make us know your characters inside and out, make sure you don't give us any reason not to approve your bio. :) A good rule of thumb is at least two pages in Mircosoft Word, or a very well written story that is not much less. Good bios are hard to write (and read) if they don't cover and explain enough of a character's life. The main reason being this: Your biography is supposed to be a catalouge of your characters ENTIRE life before they come to the Tower. It needs to be in DEPTH and INTERESTING. Please take this into consideration! We want to approve your bio, but if it isn't in depth enough, then we won't approve it. Please know that just because we ask you to add/change something, it doesn't mean we have anything against you or your bio. It simply means that we think that if you add this or that detail that your biography will be more complete and in the long run it'll make your character easier and more interesting to play. Everything we say is for the benefit of you, your character, and to make sure that the RP on our site has a strong background to lean on characterwise. Take our advice to heart, but if you have a problem with something we ask you to do, please don't hesitate to ask! We're more than willing to help, and I promise we won't bite. :)

Don't forget, there are some Talents that require admin permission. This means you must PM an admin, and obtain permission. Please see the Talents thread for a list of Talents we have, and a list of those requiring special permission. If you decide to use one of those that needs permission, please note who approved your Talent (like with nationalities).

Some other food for thought, before you choose a One Power strength that is simply "strong," think about if they are a soldier or novice and also think about how boring it would be if EVERYONE was strong. You can be average or above average and still be completely effective in the Source. It doesn't diminish your character at all. And another reason being, you cannot be more powerful than the M'Hael or Amyrlin depending on your sex. If you are a male channeler, you are generally going to be more powerful than the Aes Sedai, but if you have below average ability, then you would be less powerful than they are. I am following the books in the regard that Men are more powerful channelers than female. Also, remember that it's rare for a person to be strong in more than two elements. Typically, men are stronger in Earth and Fire, while women are stronger in Water and Air, it's not always like this, but the majority of the time it is. Please put alot of thought into having your character as average ability, there needs to be more people on this site who are average than who are strong. Also average isnt the same average used in the books. Ability in the one power has risen substantially since the DR, so you being average now, would mean you being Strong then. If you have your charater as STRONG, then you need to make them have a major weakness as well. If you have any questions whatsoever, please PM an admin, mod or your mentor.

Also, please consider the format you use when you write your bio. There are many different ways to go about it. Typically, a biography is written as a narrative, told by an outside source to impart knowledge about a person's life, since that's basically how RPs are set up as well. This is a tried and true method, and as an admin, I never tire of seeing it. Recently, it's become popular to put biographies as letters, written to someone the character has known for many years, possibly their entire lives. This is also an acceptable method, but does have its limitations. This means that you can only tell the reader what the character knows and feels but relatively little about outside influences and background information that would be awkward if written into a letter. If you're going to write your bio as a letter, please carefully concider how you can make sure you have all the information that you need, I know that it's easy to write a great letter style bio and then be asked to add something and be unsure of where to put it.