|
|
Post by Sinathael on Jan 10, 2016 22:16:17 GMT 1
As the subject line says, what inspiration did you draw on when you created your RP persona? Is your character kinda similar to you, or was there a particular concept or idea that you had in mind/wanted to explore with them?
Like, for instance, my character Kayrellion was initially based in this idea I had when I was a teenager. I was in… 7th or 8th grade I think, and one day I just had this horrible realization as I looked around at the people in my class: "Holy fuck, in 5-10 more years our generation is going to be the adults… this world is FUCKED!" Obviously, it didn't occur to me that teenagers mature, but I really did worry extensively about whether we would be able to shoulder the burdens of society when we grew up, because it really didn't seem like it at the time. (Yup! I was a lot of fun to be around back then… xD ) That whole dystopian view of the future is something that still speaks to me in some odd way even to this day though, and it's included in some of my favorite writing. For instance, King Theoden's portrayal in the Lord of the Rings is a great example of this; someone who stands in awe as he looks back on his ancestors, and feels like he is a lesser man in a lesser time, forced to shoulder burdens that weren't meant for him. It's such an amazing character conflict that just resonates with me profoundly. In any case, that was the core of Kay's persona when I first made him. Since then of course, he's lived a life of his own, and that whole cynical world view drove him to become a slightly worse paladin than I had initially intended, but… I happen to love the thought of a holy warrior who gets into trouble for drinking, gambling, and just improper behavior in general, so I guess more recently as he's developed in RP I've also instilled a bit of my own, slightly quirky sense of humor into him. An odd combination of attitudes to have in a character perhaps, but goddamn it, it works!
With Sinathael, I guess I initially just wanted a slightly more… "sinister" character, I mean the fact that his nickname is "Sin" was very much intentional... But then I thought to write the story about him to figure out for myself why he ended up that way, and started to realize there was a lot more to him than that generic surface he portrays. Now that I have a better picture of who he was, and is, I have sort of infused my love for contrasts in him as well; he lies and manipulates, he is sadistic, and he is downright depraved, but there is also another side to him that is loyal, loving, and perhaps even nurturing. It's easy enough to play a sociopath, but that's not what Sin is. Instead, his lighter and darker side is in constant turmoil, usually with his darker side being the stronger due to the horrors he's been through. I kinda picture him with an angel and a devil on each of his shoulders… only the angel is a jaded old man with a drinking problem and the devil is snorting cocaine.
But anyway that's a bit about my boys. What about the rest of you? =)
|
|
|
|
Post by Maiyka on Jan 11, 2016 14:16:28 GMT 1
Oh dear, I have a lot of interest thus a lot of different characters that all have their certain traits and stroke from things I like.
My druid Luynaraeth is heavily inspired by a felines(large cats) ferociousness and how they behave. Mostly you could say she's alike a lioness in a pack. I've always had a large interest for animals and nature, and it's befitting for the fact that she's a feral druid very intune with her animaslistical spirit, I've even made it so that when she's enraged, the spirit of a large nightstalker is visible for the naked eye, which would either just be seen by those with the ability to visibly see and sense spirits and their presence. She's also my break of the strong female character stereotype that's always cold and emotionless as she's the same time supposed to be brutal. If anything Luyna is my yet most emotional female character. She has strong emotions and feels a lot, and she rarely push them away, even when it comes to anger, which is an emotion I play a lot on when roleplaying her, since it's one of her many defense mechanisms. Another thing that I'm portraying in her is the ''strong mother and mate'' the fact that she had a child about two months ago, and she'd give everything to protect her daughter.
Noraiel oh Noraiel I feel so bad for him. At the start he was meant to be a sole little experiment to roleplay a gay character, and he's in a way my protest against this ''All belf males are gay'' yadda yadda, and I wanted to try this in the scene of roleplay. Sexuality is something that drives a lot of my characters, it's not all, but for a clutch of them it's even a keyfactor for the story revolving around them. Noraiel is noble who has in all of his life had extremely high expectations on him, with a mother and father who pulled him in different directions. Expected to wield the sword and shield and become a Spellbreaker just like his father, but at the same time he has a passion for his mothers trade, which was magic.
I've always liked magic in all it's forms myself, and here fire is a representation of the anger, repression, sorrow and passions that Noraiel has felt throughout his years, in relation to his family, his own feelings and yes, his sexuality, that he had to hide and repress for such a long time. I myself has had some nasty years with my family, so I projected that onto Noraiel, to show what kind of immense effect that family can have on a person and how it colours them once they grow up, their views and soforth. His past has a lot of responsibility for his GAD(Generalised anxiety disorder) despite the fact that he's a champion at hiding it, it's something that's constantly at the back of his head. I've taken a lot from myself and projected that into Noraiel to mold him into the person that he is, I myself has a interest for psychology and mental illnesses are also included within that field.
Maiyka, my little(but not so little) shining beacon of Light. Religion has always been a strong interest of mine and faith itself is an interesting aspect of religion itself, perhaps that's what gives it this overall mystical draw. Despite the fact that Maiyka has a unrelenting faith in the Light she's also a realist, and know that the Light cannot perform miracles, and that it's the individual themselves that has to make things happen. That's a thought I have a lot myself, that miracles and changes do not happen by the snap of fingers or because of mystical powers and faith, it's us, humans that are the moving force and it's us that are responsible for things happening and moving forward. This is also one of the keyfactors to why she initiated the Blackgarde, because she's tried waiting around for this to happen. It's also one of the many reasons why the Light is so strong and potent with her, because she's just that headstrong and forward thinking.
Mae'lyria, my dearie little blind monk. Now, this character is msotly unknown to you people here, but she has one of my favorite concepts, so I want to share. Buddhism, taoism, the Shinto, Hinduism and their legends, oh dear, I feed on these. Inner peace is a strong motivation for this character, who has thoughout her years been able to almost rid herself completely of negative emotions through long hours of meditation and training, and ridding herself of anger has been a necessary task for her. Her condition in being blind her brought a lot of rage to my now tranquil monk throughout the years, but ever since she started to study with the monks following the path of Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent, her rage has subsided, and she grows stronger and stronger every day, and being blind is but a small hindrance to her where she's in her story currently. In a way you could say that she's my look into my own future, I want to be blind to and rid of the most potent of negative emotions, I want to feel at peace with myself, in every aspect, wheter it concerns my train of thoughts or my overall appearance, be rid of anxiety and all my worries to be able to breathe and live.
Orynn(Yeah now why would I mention a character which I haven't roleplayed since August-15?) is one of the best concepts I have ever created so far. She's my play on insanity and dark themes, and how that slowly can drive a being to madness. I've had a deeprooted interest for dark themes, blood, gore and mindplay since I was about 12, and again, my interest of psychology has played a large part here. In short, Orynn is a very odd undead, with tendencies that can be interpreted as schizophrenia, the fact that she hears voices and whispers all the time. She was once a very promising disciple of the Light that slowly went mad the more and more she heard whispers, which ended with her stabbing herself in her ear and being lobotomized. Sheesh, I've seen too many horror game playthroughs, but cannot say that the game Outlast hasn't given food for thought when I was in the process of creating this character, the whispers causing this inner turmoil that makes it seem as if my undead is mad and insane. Despite this she's actually really nice and kind when her thoughts aren't railing, lesser chance to spook someone out too badly. Orynn is a bit of a bizarre character with a lot of contrasts, displayed in the various forms of her moods, but also physical condition. She cannot speak because she once screamed for such an extensive period that she shredded her vocal cords, but excells when it comes to sign-languague.
I have many more characters, but these are the one with the most interesting(for me) concepts and which I've put most effort and work on to develop and mold into what I want them to be. Many ideas and interest usually end up in creating a lot of characters.
|
|
|
|
Post by Sinathael on Jan 11, 2016 17:17:23 GMT 1
Oh yeah, I get the interest in psychology, though I think you use that a lot more than I do, but with a character like Noraiel it makes sense to see it run through more of his persona, so to speak. Maybe it would even have made sense for me to be a little more concise with certain psychological aspects with Sin, especially since he's my most introspective character by far, but I kinda ended up lifting that through my interest in philosophy instead. If you keep reading his backstory, you will eventually get to a section where I pretty much use him like a talking puppet to go through my thoughts on consciousness, and accountability for our own actions in relation to free will vs. determinism. Shit gets deep, yo! =P Huh, but I had no idea you held Mae'lyria that close to heart! I guess you've talked a lot about her, but… xD I thought that had just as much to do with the fact that you were excited for the guild she was in. That's actually really interesting; now I want to RP on Alliance-side to see her first-hand! Although when it comes to religious aspects, I think I can relate a little more easily to Mai than Mae, but that's mostly because my interest in theology is focused more on the Abrahamic religions than it is on Hinduism or Buddhism. Since you brought up characters outside of the guild, I guess I might as well follow suit with that, because I drew upon a looooooot of my thoughts about religion when I devised the first concept for the Sacrarium back on the Defias Brotherhood server ( link for those of you who don't know what the fuck I'm talking about right now). To be perfectly honest; faith scares me a little, and I wanted to explore the aspects of more fanatical beliefs that seem to be so appealing to people in real life. You'd be surprised at the number of people I've sat and listened to, arguing for either a caliphate, or that Jesus will come back in our lifetime, and I sort of tried to detect the most common thought-patterns in all of that, and put them to work in the world of Azeroth. It's really interesting, because since I have no real, personal stake in the Light as I do with being a Secular Humanist in the real world, it has opened my eyes quite a bit to how appealing these kinds of concepts can be. You really get this sense of purpose, and that in turn I guess gets muddled in with morality and personal codes, as you start to think that you represent "the forces of good". Really, really interesting, at least to me since I love to analyze things. It's also been interesting to see other people's reactions to the faction, and see what they get out of it for themselves - especially when they are people of faith in real life. |
|
