Origins

[Sablerose]

I was talking with a player who recognized me from a previous board (*waves to her*), and had said that she missed my previous character from there, Neves. When she asked if I planned on bringing her here, I said basically that, although I had no plans to, I wouldn't rule it out. But I played a version of her on a previous board, and I wanted to expand beyond her character.

That got me thinking about something I usually ask on boards like these: what's the origin of the character or characters you play? What went into their creation and their background?

For Calla, it was, ironically, her Druidical Familiar Greystreak.

Greystreak has actually had several incarnations, always as someone's familiar, be it a Druid or Mage. In the past, he's usually been teamed with a character called Dawnstar, which I used in some pen-and-paper roleplaying games. In their most recent incarnation, Dawnstar was used on another board, though as a male. And I had used Greystreak with a Druid character in a 3rd ed D&D game, though it wasn't with Dawnstar.

So I had been looking to use him again. When I saw that this board was rebooting, I decided to work on how to bring him in with a character. Calla actually came about after searching the internet for some pictures of druids, especially 1st and 2nd ed D&D ones. I came across the redhead that you see in her description, and when I saw the wolf there, I basically said that I'd found the visual model for my character.

Then came the hard part: background. Since I hadn't had much in the way of consistent backgrounds for any version of Greystreak's human partner, I decided that anything was game. In this case, being a fan of Mercedes Lackey's Heralds books (if you haven't read them, I'd strongly suggest that you do), so I designed Laurelmoon, where she would be from, on Valdemar to some extent, especially the part where the ruler of the kingdom would have to be a Druid, as Lackey had made the ruler of Valdemar a Herald.

The name Calla was actually a harder thing. Names for me are usually the most difficult thing in a character. My tendency is to pick a name that has some meaning to the character, be it a background or variation on what he or she does, or the like. In her case, I can't recall exactly where I got it, though I think I found it related to something Gaelic. There is a plant genus by that name, but I don't think it influenced her name much, if at all, though with her being a Druid, it certainly might have.

In any case, I'm curious to hear the origins of other people's characters, so post 'em here!

[iphigenia]

Well Iphie's concept came out of the roots from d&d as well. Well, some of her did. When working on fantasy I like to build a character sheet for each character so I can keep track of what they can and cannot do. D&d is good for that. Iphie was born from a character by the name of Rowena. She was a fighter, so pretty basic, but with the secret anger fueled strength. While Iphie is still fighting it, Row gave into the corruption and became one of the most feared creatures on earth. She's even got a role to play in the final judgement of humanity which will be fun when I finally get around to writing that bit. In any case, she was evil for awhile, then got bored and became good, then got bored and proceeded to do whatever she likes. Allowing the virus to take over her gave her some really nifty abilities too, though now she forever smells of death and decay. Iphie is just a small branching path, and I can't wait to see if she resists or gives in.

There is also the side of her that is very witchy, not magical but viral. Those who have heard me talk about it know this. The witch is from l4d one and two and has ensnared me in a wall of cuteness even if it is the most frightening thing to jump on in the game. Also very scary looking despite the chibis floating around online.

Lita is less inspired. Her name comes from, not mythology like I usually do, but a gamer chick from Cheer!, a webcomic offshoot of The Wotch that I love. Her concept is born from a multitude of things. Dr. Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein, Igor and Igorina from Discworld, and most other mad scientists. Although, yes, there are d&d characters in her as well. I tried to get a little of my sorcerer pixie in there because I love the idea of a magic user who doesn't believe in magic but that didn't work out. So she got a large dose of Percival Princeton, Duke of Darkness. A bard whose skills involved long monotone speeches about nothing and almost no martial skill at all. There's a lovely story about him I'd be willing to share if you ask but it doesn't have much to do with this. Anyway, he was chaotic evil as done by Martha Stewart. Very much like Garland of 8-bit theater in fact. The fun of it is, she doesn't realize that she's an evil scientist, though she might easily follow any of the tropes including the foreboding castle, capturing heroes, etc. Maybe later on she'll start doing that but she's too poor for now.

Liliane was very spur of the moment. If I had to give her some inspiration, probably something like the Fifth Horseman of the apocalypse in the Discworld mythos. The one who retired to be a milkman.

[Daring Jo Lockwood]

No kiddin', you played Neves?

Cool! I had Coyote and her irritable cousin Nina (who had a second incarnation in the form of Shawny over on Hothcharm) in Shuruden.

Anyhow, a quick tour of my characters for Sapphis:

Dusty and Zdena come from two countries I made up for the last board. Zdena, being a descendant of Kaja from a little steampunk country. I basically modeled Kaja after some eccentric inventors, sort of like Nikola Tesla or Howard Hughes. Only, her eccentricities weren't as out there as Zdena, as she was a bit more of a happy-go-lucky gal.

I've been tweaking Zdena around for some time and she's pretty much continuing the model of eccentric inventor. Only, I decided to make her a bit more socially awkward. But, I also wanted to give her something would be a bit creepy. Then, I found the pic I used in her profile. The glowing jack-o-lantern was awesome and so I came up with Effie. So, there's Zdena and her creepy glowing orb!

On to Dusty. She's from a western-inspiration, quite obviously. Back on the old board, I came up with Aces Addy, a short little detective who was brought in to hunt down spies...and try to win the first Anactoria's hand. Both her and Dusty also share some inspiration with Sherlock Holmes, in terms of being very clever and observant detectives.

So, I had the whole country set in what is largely just a vast desert. Then I have the ruling family constantly fighting with a rival family, sort of like the Hatfields and the McCoys. The Magistrate, where Addy and Dusty (briefly) worked, is basically the US Marshals. I did have a lot of fun with Addy and brought her out in the St. Catherine's RP. (Hell, I still want to find an RP where I can bring 'er out again XD)

And while Addy was more of the calm cool and collected type, Dusty is just bursting about with excitable energy. And, of course, there was the pic-hunt for some anime characters in cowboy hats. I dug up one that looked like what I was going for and I had everything I needed to finish rolling up Dusty.

Finally, Jo...good ol' Jo. I've had the pic I used for Jo floating around for some time. When I first saw it, I thought it would make for a cool character. When the board fired up and I started coming up with characters, I decided to make Jo. A highwayman with a penchant for skirt-chasing. I just wanted to make an over the top character, who thought very highly of herself and wouldn't stop talking. So, I thought a highway robber would work very well. Especially the romanticized version of the robbers, in the classic "Dashing Rogue" archetype.

Aaaaaannnnndddd that's about it!

[Sablerose]

Hey, I though Dusty reminded me a bit of Coyote, now that you mention it. Good to see some of the old Shuruden made it. And, if you'll notice Jen made it too!

[Dusty Dawson]

I thought that was the same Jen! Good to see familiar faces!

[Freja Gudjondottir]

Alumina was made by me when I was just 11 years old. That was a long time ago. Besides another character of mine (who's name was Kalafina,I should bring her into this board..) she was pretty much first character like ever. So of course when I started out she was something of a Mary Sue. Extremely powerful beautiful vampire with a kind heart and gets away with everything? Yeeeeeaaah. Though she's still kind of like this now.

Anywho, in my original RPGs Alumina was something of a Mary Sue. And when started gaining love interests she became a Jerk Sue, And as time went on I developed her so she was just a tsundere. As a matter of fact as I use her now, she's really kind of a poke at the tsundere lolis Rie Kugamiya voices.

As for her name and where she came from,Alumina was originally part Japanese (but yet still managed to not look Japanese,yay for Sue-qualities~*shot*), but as I got older I realized this wouldn't make sense and changed her to all...whatever she is..European something,let's just say she sure as hell isn't Japanese XD Also the name Alumina means nothing,I just made it up on the spot.

As for her pics,I always end up changing my pics, they're usually always these albino lolis with blue eyes but in a different style. The current pic I'm using for her is probably my favorite.

Freja's...a tad more complicated. I know I wanted to do this story of a character who's basically just like her (I use Freja on this forum because that's what it says on her pic), so that's kind of the idea where she came from in the first place.

Freja was originally actually supposed to be a practical Mary Sue in public and acting like the psycho dominatrix-bitch you know and love behind closed doors. But lately even in public she acts a bit full of herself and childish, so I failed at that. Oh well XD

As for her picture comes from the Japanese RPG called Silver Rain, which is where Jo's pic comes from too, whether they realize it or not. Although in the original RPG Jo's character was actually called The Mad Hatter. Very suiting for Jo if you ask me. I was scrolling photobucket for girls with whips and I felt Freja's fit the best so I used it here.

[Anactoria IV]

YuriChampion here. You might remember from such characters and Alice, the high school student with a drinking problem, no arms, and four legs from Shuruden (then reborn on Hothcharm as a workaholic/super artistic witch with dissociative identity disorder). I also played both Illa the viera princess on the old Sapphis, as well as a much younger, much more vulnerable Karishima.

But you’re not here to learn about my old characters are you?

The idea for Toph was lifted pretty much wholesale from the character in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I just aged her 8 years and re-worked her history (and by extension the story of the four nations) to get it to fit this setting. The initial idea behind my version of Toph was that she was a child solider in the Earth Kingdom/Fire Nation war, with all the trauma that brings. She was supposed to be straight as an arrow and only in Venus to find and being back Anactoria, only to fall in love with her afterwards and make a serious play for her hand. Her story was supposed to be a “love is love, gender is irrelevant” kinda thing.

Then I got picked to play Anactoria and that got thrown out the window. I reworked her history again, created the Cera character and their tight friendship and her eventual death to up the PTSD and sexual confession angles. The result was... well its still developing. I cant wait to see where it goes.

Karishima Yumi was born of a combination of things. First was her picture, which I found in some image board like seven years ago or so. The image I used here is cropped to make it SFW. I can PM the full image to anyone who wants it. Until I saw her, all the tentacle monsters in I’ve ever seen were implied to be male. Now here was a cute female one. The implications of a hot female tentacle monster in fantasy-theme shoujo-ai rpg were obvious from the start – I don’t call myself YuriChampion for nothing.

Next was came the setting. Old Sapphis’ backstory – of Venus being overrun by criminal and demons, gave me the perfect setting in which to give Karishima life. Take one ‘civilized’ tentacle monster – the name Glemph was lifted from a webcomic all about tentacle sex and the women who love it – and one initially terrified but eventually seduced human woman -- the name Asao Yumi was take from the doujin Fiend Without A Face which was all about a happy human/tentacle monster couple living in modern Japan – lock them in a room together, spend about 15 minutes on a baby name website for names that mean ‘miracle’ and viola: Karishima Yumi.

Lianadra's, origin I can't share yet, as it would kill the mystery I'm trying to build around the character.

Which brings me to the woman herself, Princess Anactoria Sapphis IV. Obviously I didn’t make her up, I’m just providing her voice for a time. I actually struggled with what kind of princess to make her. They sheltered and pampered (and therefore useless) Princess Classic like Peach or [enter every Disney ‘princess’ save for Mulan and maybe Tiana here]. The independent , ‘sister is doing it for herself’ princess like later incarnations of Zelda or Éowyn, or the previous Anactoira? Or shall I make her more sensual and worldly in matters of her own heart and position?

Then one day while reading book two of a Song of Ice and fire, it hit me: I’LL DO ALL THREE!

[Camelia Isorriel]

Beylinde and Camelia both came from a weird place. Beylide was basically my attempt to play a character who was a Fire Elemental and wasn't the typical portrayal of them (Beylinde, for example, is mostly sweet-tempered and gentle, attributes given to Water Elementals, which I write enough of already). I also like to write sibling rivalries, and about seemingly perfect people being not wanting to have to be perfect anymore, and twins. So yeah.

So Camelia is the classic Girl in a Gilded Cage who isn't so much bored with her life of royalty...as much as outright loathing it. To some extent, she doesn't like the idea of being in charge at all. So she isn't so much fallen royalty as much as she swan-dived. ...also Happiness in Slavery is somehow my favorite trope...