In answer to your question, I think the best eidolons have a clearly defined purpose. I don't think it's enough to just be an Angel/Demon/Spirit, I think you really need to know what you're going to be the Spirit of, and what you intend to do with yourself. A lot of players tend to ignore or disparage eidolons, so it helps if you have a good excuse to be hard to ignore.
It can also help if you write a short background for PD, and tell them what you want your 'original mission' to be. This gives you one mission that will always be available for you to carry out, and ensures that you always have something to do that you know you will enjoy, even if nothing else is going to plan.
Distinctive kit is useful for getting yourself noticed, but bear in mind that being noticed often diminshes an Eidolon's combat effectiveness, and since you can never count on getting blessings or skills, you will need every hard skill advantage you can get. It is much harder to play an Eidolon than it is to play any other type of character, but it is also a lot more fun
I tend to wax lyrical (i.e. talk bollocks) about Eidoloning, but if I cut out my own crap I have two main suggestions:
Be An Eidolon. Read through your briefing and think hard about how it will effect your character. You are something pretty damn special in the game world - don't be afraid to let rip where you might otherwise be cautious.
Don't Just Be An Eidolon. Eidolons are all individuals, with a heck of a lot of history and personality to shape them. What's your character's style? Why are they like that? How have they developed? What makes you you?
Get To Know The Mortals, Fast. Get to know all likely targets for your imperatives, so when the gods throw you a curveball you know how you're going to spin this one to the mortals. Turning up with an irrelevant message is worse than turning up without one.
Get To Know The Imperatives. Mortals will ask you what the will of the Gods is. It's fairly easy to construct a picture of what the will of the Gods is from what the imperatives are. In my opinion this is very worth doing, it makes you sound more knowledgeable and holy.
Have A Plan, a concept - but don't be afraid to change it when you hit play. Auriel is nearly unrecognisable from his original concept. I suspect the same can be said of Mardocai. Then again, Lies is a good example of a strong initial concept well followed through.
Be Recognised. Your look is far more important than your concept in terms of how good people will think you are. I'd go so far as to say - do not play a squigglehead (that is, minimum necessary physrep), because people will not recognise you, you will not stand out from the crowd.
Don't Back Down. You're immortal, you're literally God's gift to mortalkind. There is no excuse for bottling out. Eidolons are supposed to be shit-stirrers.
Act as if you deserve respect, for the above reason. People will respect you if by your every action you are sending nonverbal signals of "Respect me!"
A good player will not expect people to react to them with respect and reverence, and will therefore be endlessly happily surprised. A good player will not use all the knowledge that they cannot help but gather OOC due to the amount we spend walking around 'not there'. A good player will not bring the exact wording of their divine missions to the mortals (this point is not immediately obvious, but it makes the game more fun for everyone if it is followed). A bad player will bitch and whine rather than react IC to something. A bad player will exploit their status as 'allowed to wander around invisible'.
A great eidolon will be one whose name everyone knows. Who is included in every prayer - that of your friends, as a commendation, and that of your enemies, as a plea for aid. Who has an entire camp on edge by walking in. Who understands that their weapons are there almost entirely for show, and that fighting is done to make a point and that alone. Whose appearance is individual, iconic, recognisable and widely known.
A crap eidolon will be one who is 'an immortal member of $group', who ignores their imperatives not because of good reasons but because they want to sit and drink with their mates, who turns up to help someone without any idea of how they can do this, who doesn't play nicely with the other eidolons.
_________________ Auriel, The Bearer of Light, First of the Fallen, Duke of Lies, Prince of the Maelstrom
I'll try to add a smidgen of my own distilled wisdom.
Image is everything.
It's been said before, but bears repeating endlessly. As an eidolon, your power and influence are directly proportional to the strength of your image. Do anything to further your repute and reinforce your concept, even in the face of apparent adversity; you have as long as you like to nurture your long term goals, so don't sacrifice them in favour of short-term convenience.
Play to your OC strengths.
Eidolons lack the comforting embrace of blessings, skills and other IC coddles, at least to begin with; as such, to establish yourself you should play to your OC abilities, or 'hard skills'.
You might be a capable debater, combatant, manipulator, carouser, buffoon, infiltrator, inimidator, inspirer, or simply good fun to be around. Eidolons have established a tradition of 'narrow psyche' to mirror the angels, spirits and demons of myth; use this to capitalise on the style of play you find accessible and rewarding, and ignore others.
I will go so far as to consider your appearance, also; matters of stature and form can make a big difference to your image. For example, I'm 5'8" and eight stone. I simply couldn't nurture the same imposing visage as the likes of Auriel! Instead, I've gone for an alternative aesthetic that I hope is just as effective.
Complement, don't compete.
There's only so much conceptual space in a player's head, and eidolons do their best to fill it - embodying different aspects of their nature to become clearly recognisable concepts.
Dont live in the shadow of existing 'celebrities'. Attempting to portray the 'rational monster' better than Flail, the 'inspiring enigma' better than Riddle or the 'gung-ho playboy' better than Primus is making life hard for yourself! Instead, find an interesting take on your patron (or Fallen nature), and run with it.
Don't get intimidated.
Playing an eidolon, if you're able to relax into the role and avoid unreasonable expectations, is far easier than most people think. This is, perhaps, the real Great Eidolon Conspiracy.
_________________ "I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect." ~ Oscar Wilde
I'd suggest thinking of a three word 'Archetype' to describe your character. Then play around with costume, prosthetics and make-up until you feel you represent that description, expand on it, or find something better!
It doesn't need to be expensive kit to look good, but do ensure that, to the best of your abilities and available costume, you pull off something of the 'Divine', or 'Monter' somehow. There are plenty of inspirational ideas out there in world mythlore and fantasy art.
Expanding on Persephon's 'Don't compete with the big guns' and the other advice above, find your own niche.
There are plenty out there undiscovered waiting for the right Eidolon player to fill. There are probably vacancies and untapped player groups we don't recognize yet
There may be a perception that there are too many Eidolons of a particular Deity out there. It's true that some are heavily subscribed (Jaguar and Weaver for example), yet somehow most of the Eidolons are not tripping over each other all the time, and if the character is strong enough, it will make its own vacancy.
My suggestion would be this: be the creation of a god. You are there to be that gods arm upon the lands, act like it. Take directives. Do what your god or gods would want you to do, and do it in your way.
And be not a mortal.
Stuff that the mortals can do for themselves, they can do for themselves. You are there to do that which they can't - inspire, awe, terrorise, bless. Where they must tread carefully and fearfully, you can leap boldly. Use that.
As a general rule, I'd agree with the posts above. But at the moment, I'm not following quite a few of them - after initialy going with a very strong image, he's now far more restrained. Why not? Because my character sees that as the best way to serve his god, at the moment. That's his way of doing things, other people work in their ways.
And I'd also agree with the whole 'finding your niche' thing. What can you do that no-one else is doing, what is it that makes you 'special'.
A Great Eidolon should leave no character encountering it any doubt as to the fact they have come into contact with a Divine Messenger, and that their life has been changed in some way (for the better, worse or more interesting)
There are of course, inverses of the above who are also Great Eidolons, because they are secretive, covert, subtle and quiet and get whatever they need done by cunning and guile and and never let on to their true nature. (We don't see very much of them for some reason...)
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Cry* boohooohoo...
