Back when I joined, there were no nicknames. This proved a horror. Before I even logged onto the server (only thing stopping me was the texture pack download. I had terrible download speeds, and could only play Minecraft on multiplayer if I wasn't downloading anything), I read all the lore. Well, however much there was back then. Which wasn't much. I can remember it being some kind of book with a race on each page with example skins for each.
I took an interest in Tigrans, so I decided to be a subrace of them, with the name 'Twinken'. My IGN back then was 'MrTwinkeh', so I used this name for the sake of ease of memory for people who met this character. Any-who, I basically messed around as this character. No immediate cringe moments pop into my head. Though, back then, I grew very frustrated at vampire sympathisers. Despite the lack of lore, one very obvious thing was the mention of the fact that: "A vampire cannot be inherently good. They may perform good actions, but are cursed, and therefore considered bad". Apparently, no one could wrap their head around this.
A while later, due to my frustration on this vampire situation, I made a character called 'Leon Vill'. I believe nicknames had still not been added at this point (or had they?). The Crimson Inquisition, at the time, was a burned ruin. In order to resolve this, I formed the Red Legacy. Armed with a bad skin and some equally new RPers, I began my quest to remove vampires from the city. Surprisingly, it worked quite well (apart from the numerous people who loved vampires for some reason). The only cringe moments I can recall are standing on the ruins of the Crimson Inquisition, holding a wooden sword, and looking over Regalia wistfully.
Eh, I'm not going to say I was good right off the bat, but I wasn't bad. I prefer my new characters, though.