I started with three characters, intending all of them to be main characters doing everything. Though I don't roleplay much in the sense of talking in chat about what my character is doing, I do like having different races, names, and appearances helping me distinguish separate characters as separate people. It also lets me explore all options, like having a character from each starting city and one in each GC.

The sheer time commitment in leveling everything, however, has more or less relegated two of those three (as well as a couple others I've made since) to "alt" status, and Y'kayah has become my de facto "main" as I seem to most enjoy playing my Miqo'te and spend significantly more time with him than any of the others.