Character Inspiration Thread

Some people know this, but he didn't start out as a full-on skeleton. Originally an OC I made just to have some sort of skullhead representation in my roster, he later became a D&D character in a buddy's campaign, being a Warlock whose patron god was the GM himself. His personality was initially shaped around being funny, goofy, and all that, but later on I decided to make him a genuinely kind and selfless character because I felt like it was something I've never done before. (LOL) A 'luck' based character, who either had all of the luck or none of it, depending on the situation.

As for his appearance, it's honestly a wild mix of all my favorite visual aesthetics. His signature hat's design was influenced by already existing characters like Ace from One Piece, Alcina Dimitrescu from RE: Village, Scaramouche from G*nshin Impact, Paddington's bucket hat and Hiruzen Sarutobi from Naruto. As for his more generic open coat and overall looks, it's basically just old-timey thrift shop fashion I thought of on the go while designing him, mostly sticking to a tri-color formula of red, yellow and brown, to create a familiar, memorable color pallette he could be recognized in.

I was unsure about what kind of character I wanted to play when I first joined GC, but the moment I heard of playable skeletons I immediately got the idea to make Chayka a skeleton, and obviously develop his personality further. Originally a very one-dimensional happy-go-lucky type of guy, some of the interactions with various people have shaped him into a more 'aware' and mature being. Or something along the lines of that. I think the major inspirations for his overall character, attitude and humor were surprisingly joke twitter/tumblr accounts like horse_ebooks and the absurdity of the game Magicka.

@Occultatum Dobra Noch!!

 

Reggie came from me needing a new character for a trial Cyberpunk Red campaign a friend was running. We were looking for good Rockstar names, and we used this generator to find some. Reggie Crash was the one that jumped out the most to me, and I went and found a picture of a shitty Party City "Rockstar" costume on google images for a visual reference.


Everything from there was just us fucking around during the campaign. After it was over, I liked the character so much, I brought him to GC, rewrote some of his backstory to fit in better with GC, and that was it.


Reggie pretty much radiates good vibes. I don't want him to actively attack anyone or be mean, it's just not in his nature, but if he's pushed hard enough into a situation, he'll end up having to roll with it. I have more interesting things going on behind the scenes that explain things like his faulty vision, somewhat stunted intelligence, and surprising strength, but I'm not gonna talk about that here.

I intend on bringing him to other places, too. He could be in an actual game at some point soon.

 

Dobra is based on a character I played on GC years ago, who'd come to the Fringe fleeing someone in Civ-Space. Oddly enough, Dobra as she exists now is a result of me forgetting a lot of what her motives were. I did, however, remember that she'd gotten exposed to a chemical weapon that damaged her body, mind, and memory, which really worked to my advantage when it came to developing her into a more fleshed out character. I tried to look at what little I remembered through the lens of someone with severe amnesia, and came to the conclusion she probably wouldn't like the person she used to be based on those few fragments she had.

Another source of inspiration was the philosophical concept of the 'Ship of Theseus', which asks the question as to whether Theseus' ship was the same ship, even if every piece of it was gradually replaced through the years. I aimed to explore that with Dobra, and so far I'm fairly pleased with the result. Part of her becoming a 'new' character over the old is the result of her inadvertantly learning to meditate whilst in her damaged state. Gradually she could assert more control, and as she did she would look into various meditative introspective ideas like the 'Middle Way' and the 'Noble Eightfold Path'. Diogenes the Cynic was also an inspiration, albeit a very very mild one, which further formed Dobra's character into the selfless, ascetic, perpetually travelling scavver you all know and love.

@Randy I wanna know more about Lorch.

EDIT: I totally forgot to mention her 'No Man is an Island' ethos, which is why she's so dedicated to helping people she barely knows. This is drawn from the poem by John Donne, of the same name, which reads:

"No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory were:
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were.

Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee."

She truly believes that everyone and everything is connected in one form or another, and so the suffering of one increases the suffering of others, and there's nothing she wants more than to reduce the universe's suffering as much as she can. Naturally this mentality applies to all living things, not just men or Europe.

EDIT 2: Also the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series played a big role in her signature outfit, but that's neither here nor there.

 

I just noticed that I've been tagged to do one of these things, so here I am with Lorch!

Lorch was initially meant to be a side character, can you imagine? I created a couple of characters when my main characters (Bradley and Ro'di Sykes) were busy with the war against the Godus or busy doing things in the background for Margury. At first, there was Archeus Meltdown, a Miniknog General that had ties with a shadowy group of aristocratic businessmen and women called the Welton family. While I enjoyed roleplaying him, it was hard to have him connect with people, since he was (and still is) just a big old grump of few words. So, I created something quite the opposite. I gave Archeus a son who would be energetic, joyous and as gay as one could possibly be. My biggest inspiration for him back then probably would've been Zhang He from Dynasty Warriors, and Gregorio III from Gitaroo Man, which I used to play then. I stole the name Lorch from a guy named Lorch Furholden, a recruitable NPC in the game Granado Espada / Sword of the New World, whom I recently unlocked back then.

He and his personality were well received by the community, so I just kept him around, but it meant that I'd have to give him a backstory. With Lorch being so different from his strict and exemplary Miniknog father, I imagined that there'd be a lot of tension at home and the other people in the colony trying their best to live up to the rules and standards of the authoritarian regime of Big Ape. Comparing the Miniknog to a country such as Russia, I figured that being homosexual could also be a big no-no for the Miniknog, or at least heavily frowned upon.

[SPOILER ALERT FOR DRAGON AGE INQUISITION]
I eventually picked up Dragon Age Inquisition and felt a connection between Lorch and Dorian Pavus in their backstories. Both were shunned by their fathers. Dorian, in his backstory, reveals that his father tried to change him using the forbidden art of blood magic. I took inspiration from that, adding to the backstory that Lorch's father once forced his son to undergo a good, old-fashioned thought-reassignment; a brainwashing method that was already part of the Apex lore in Starbound.

Lorch lore aside, I did have sources of inspiration for his many outfits. Him being a fashionista, I looked up tons of imagines and tried to replicate those in Starbound Outfit Studio or Starcheat back in the days. Of course, I don't have those images anymore, but I do remember getting inspired by the use of hats by Mitch Grassi from Pentatonix, who wore a hat in their clip "Hallelujah". Inspiration of that can be found again in one of the arts I made, as well.

His transition to a goth didn't come without inspiration either. While the transition itself was an idea of my own, I did take some inspiration for Lorch's new hair from Hubert from Fire Emblem Three Houses.

I believe that's it! All of the inspiration on the table! Seeing that I now have to tag someone else.. I would like to go with someone I only recently started to come across....

Gilligan, by @Samwych

 

oh wow ok! i gotta think for a minute about all the inspo for gill.

Originally, he started out as a sort of beanpole PTSD kid with the edgiest backstory ever (of killing his best friend) and dealing with the aftermath of it (emotionally) when he was just 15. Ever since then Gills been evolving and changing but one thing has remained consistent: I've always aged him up in real-time. I've been playing him for about 8 years coming this November (He's 23 now) and I'm very content to continue playing him

He sorta started out as my outlet to express my anxiety and distress when it came to RP in the first place. I was always anxious when it came to meeting new people/preexisting people i knew. I had a lot of anxiety (Still do!) and Gill has been a great outlet to express it and process it.

Processing Trauma is a difficult thing and Gill really helped with that! I'll always be grateful to have him in my life.

As for inspiration- some of the inspirations I pull from can be kinda obvious while some are more obscure. Here's a list (in no particular order) of characters from media I use for Gilligan.

1. Guillermo De La Cruz (What We Do in the Shadows)
2. Doctor Doppler (Treasure Planet)
   
3. Milo Thatch (Atlantis)
   
4. Doctor Sylvester Ashling (Epithet Erased)
5. Caleb Widogast (Critical Role)

idk what else to put here thank you all for reading

im tagging @crumchy next

 

I am just now seeing this so I will do a short response.
I created Yaretzi as my second main character because Roleplaying with Endy was just not the vibe at the time and she needed some re-writing.

Her inspiration was the typical rigid/mean doctor that softens when she makes good friends.

 

Hi everyone! I'm going to do an inspiration post for Clover as they're one of my more fleshed out characters that take heavy inspiration from many other media properties. However, Clover was a character made to introduce a new culture group xand set of areas to the GC setting that acts as a compliment to my other additions, so I'll be reviewing the general ideas and inspirations around that first.


The Steppean Glitch are a mini-lore faction I wrote in order to both compliment the themes and concepts I worked on prior with factions like Renaize and species like the Bubs but also to retread old ground to flesh out the ideas and make them more interesting. The major concepts of the Steppe are a peaceful anarchy, stagnation, and the search for order and control in one's life. The Glitch of the Steppe are an incohesive cluster of clans across a string of star systems in the Fringe that are united by the common trait of being once enslaved by a creative and charismatic Glitch hive until, one day, without warning, the hive vanished, leaving its controlled populace to their own devices while they attempt to recreate its perceived "glory" by reenacting the grand epics the hive created as an expression of its creativity. The Glitch are stuck in these old ways, have grown stagnant, and have only organized with one another based on their places in grand "ballads." They do, however, seemingly universally, crave the feeling of becoming a pawn again in a great story, leading to a warped view of everything regarding slavery and freedom.


I think the most obvious inspiration for the group and setting are the Summer Fae from Kingdoms of Amalur.





Since KoA is a game that flies under the radar most of the time, I'll elaborate. The Summer Fae have a House of Ballads that are locked into an Eternal Cycle. History doesn't repeat itself just in a vague sense, it's all literal to them, with Fae constantly reborn to repeat the same "ballads" and feats in each life, as opposed to the mortals of the realm who forge their own, linear destiny. The Steppean Glitch practice a similar cycle, reenacting ballads, but in a far less literal and clear-cut way, where each new Glitch is meant to assume the last position that has been made available. It also isn't the very nature of their being as it is with the Fae; they're doing it to capture a long-lost, twinkling state of living that they were placed in against their will and grew rather comfortable in.


The next of the inspirations of the Steppe is the world of LISA: The Painful in its theme of stagnation in the face of great change of the status quo.





When visiting the Boneyard, the only current Steppean in-game hub, one of the things a character might notice is that there's a lot of Steppeans kind of just standing around doing absolutely nothing. With nothing to do and a non-specific role in their Ballads, the Glitch have very little to actually accomplish in their day-to-day lives, and as such any progress in bettering their society has come to a crawl. This is similar to the world of LISA, as the colorful cast of characters face a similar predicament. In the wake of a disaster ridding the world of women, the remaining men of the world find themselves in new and uncomfortable lives. Some join groups in an attempt to better the world and others join gangs, but the majority of people in Olathe can be found kind of just sitting around in small hamlets doing nothing.


I think that the inspiration from Dark Souls is worn on the sleeve of every Steppean, at least aesthetically since I've never actually played Dark Souls and know nothing about it other than cool dark fantasy world and some pot guy in Elden Ring.


Alright, now down to Clover as an individual. If the Steppe were its own setting instead of a part of GC, they'd probably be the protagonist. They are the firstborn after the disappearance of their hive and don't quite fit into their designated role as the lucky hero, Clover. In that way they take heavy amounts of story cues from the main characters of dystopian novels. However, I think that on a more personable level, Clover takes the most amount of inspiration from the character of Wheatley from Portal 2 as well as Alistair from the Dragon Age series, who their outfit is actually based on.





Wheatley is one of the main inspirations as Clover is both a robot and a bit of a fumbler. They're clumsy, extremely gullible, maybe a little bit dull, and generally have no clue what they're doing. The main divergence in this point is that Clover isn't particularly selfish or malleable to outside influences; they're an unwavering beacon of positivity, although a bit of a cheeky one.





Alistair from Dragon Age is, superficially, quite a bit like Clover. They are a bit witty and can give a bit of sass, and mean well deep down and don't condone any kind of perceived evil or betrayal. Additionally, they were both born into a position that they don't want and have renounced their titles to become an individual more capable of helping others closer to the bottom line and with more freedom in their choices on what they want to do with their life.

 

yeah an afternoon discussion on discord inspired me to post this at once
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I suppose that now, after all this time passed, I am finally- and in turn, fully- able to understand what made Sun-Upon-Soil so endearing to me. The very first thoughts about a nature-related character were implanted in me when I was still active in the WoW-RP communities, and I had an opportunity to partake in various scenes and scenarios that involved various Druids, or otherwise Druid-adjacent characters. For the majority of those experiences, I noticed that most of them were, for the lack of a better word, lame as fuck. They were those stereotypical, cliche "one-thousand-year-old Druid who smokes pipe" and ones that give you the long mulled over advice of "just do what your heart tells you, man". Essentially, the majority of them played hippies masquerading as some dendrophiliac furries. Seriously, Worgen Druids were a plague that I wanted to get rid of.

As such, I started thinking and, while still involved in WoW-RP, throwing around the idea of a Druid that is much more feral and primitive than his colleagues. One disillusioned about the spread of civilisation, essentially a walking freakshow who had little to no consideration for anything or anyone, shoulder-deep in a pit of own insanity, which only intensified following the burning of Teldrassil; a big event in-lore that caused one of the major cities, located inside a tree, to burn to ashes. To be completely honest, this didn't go anywhere. I wasn't any closer to making that character than I was before I even had those thoughts, and I dropped it for a long while.

The "real" idea of Sun-Upon-Soil materialized in my brain when I started my archaeological studies in 2021; few months after the first semester started, I think it was around November or so, I had an opportunity to attend a small lecture about the modernized view of the "barbaric man" of the past. It was mostly in relation to the Roman outlook on the people outside of the borders of the empire, referring to the tribes and civilisations of central Europe in the iron age. Big part of this lecture was devoted towards painting the image of a "noble, wild, albeit pure and innocent" barbarian, with the main example being none other than Conan the Barbarian. About how they're untainted by civilization, uncontrolled, and are still managing to be kind, pure, and have a childish innocence in their hearts, being able to be both soft and strong at the same time. You know- the idea of how they will first beat the crap out of an evil Lich, and then go plant a warm kiss on the captured princesses' forehead. Think Johnny Bravo meets a D&D campaign, more or less.

What also fascinated me was the belief of the prof. responsible for this shared some of this belief- he thought that humans used to be happier, and were generally more likely to find success and joy in the simpler times before.. you know, these times.

I suppose that only now I can properly understand what he meant by this. Few months later, I started to learn how humanity evolved and progressed- how between the time that the first Homo Sapiens emerged, and the agricultural changes of neolith (which, de-facto, were birth of civilisation and "modern" world), and between that and now, there was almost 29 times the amount of time. For almost 290,000 years, humans were kinda.. Wild. So much time they spent accustomed to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and their brains were wired to still live on savannas and taigas, and steppes and tundras. So now take this 290,000 year old modern brain, and force it to go through the most insane changes of history in the least amount of time. Age of technology, cars, and whatever else, all of it happening in a droplet of the time that was betwene we first started existing, and the modern day. We moved on bit too far, bit too fast- biologically speaking, we are still just a bunch of monkeys swinging from trees, about to bang together two rocks to create a primitive chopping tool.

Sun-Upon-Soil was a subconscious embodiment of my frustrations of life at that point. It was right about when I moved from a relatively countryside town to a bustling metropolis, and the entire environment suffocated me. Maybe because of the constant speed that life had there, or the commotion that was just going to attend classes in the morning, or the overbearing presence of people, everywhere, at all times, surrounded by concrete blocks and skyscrapers, I felt like I didn't belong- and combine this with my less-subconscious mullings over humanity and our adaptation to the environment, and you'll get one, frustrated, exhausted guy.

To an extent, the Fringe was that. Almost every single bigger hub was automated on some level- be it the presence of robots, AI, machines, bots, or any other automatons that did the thinking, working, and tasks for you, so you wouldn't have to lift a finger, everything was bound to breed some comfort- and with that comfort, you'd have less and less "scrappy" people. I'm speaking from experience here, if you were to throw me out into the woods at that moment in time, I'd probably die of dysentery in less than five hours because I decided that glowing green berries were going to nourish me very well. All in all, as per my previous point, it was just.. frustration.

Sun-Upon-Soil was that frustration. When I made him, and played him properly, I wanted to explore the theme of a dying time of naturalistic freedom being overtaken by the expansion of cities and society as a whole, where simple wonders like going out for a walk in the forest were industrialized to the point of neutering. Forests become parks, lakes turn dry, and so on. At this point, it's inevitable, and there's little that can be done about it- but despite this, a lot of people are going to express unbridled anger over that state of being. In the case of Galaxy Citizen, that someone would be Sun-Upon-Soil. In his core, he was meant to be a tragic, almost mournful character; he was, all in all, nothing short of a sign of passing times that are soon to be replaced, and how he just tried to struggle to uphold the state of being- his state of being- for as long as possible. He refused to learn to read because he believed knowledge of someone else would replace his own, he refused to use modern tools that he didn't craft himself because he was certain he would get too comfortable and keep buying them from someone, and he often didn't wish to socialize because of the sole possibility that some of the "modern" views would seep into his heart and replace his wild passion.

Much of his character design was meant to reflect upon the mockery he made of the world around him. His clothing was all hand-made by himself, his weapons and tools were crafted with an amount of detail and care seen nowhere else, and his entire body bore scars of tribal value, which he so thoroughly kept open, so that he wouldn't forget what he fights for. When I designed his "looks'', his face and body, I wanted a mixture of innocence and brutish, feral traits to be visible. Most notably, his face and foliage, which I went to great lengths to explain how it was soft and almost feminine in nature- just how nature itself, which can be foreboding and mystifying at the same time. It was to show that there is underlying, naturalistic beauty to everything around you, one that cannot be replaced by concrete or steel. His foliage was of bright pinks and almost reflective white, while still being seen as unkempt and wild.. which only added to his "prettiness".

It was a stark contrast to the iron and steel armor he wore. It wasn't made by him, directly, as it was mostly body parts of slain Glitch and androids (which he considered to be an absolute mockery of the modern civilisation, the plague upon the universe), and scavenged armor pieces he took from his opponent. It was ugly, it was intimidating, and it was frightening, especially with that pair of horns at both sides of his helm.

It was the opposite end of the coin- scarred, scratched pieces of the progressing world, which he wore upon himself as a mockery of everything that opposed him. Even the choices of his weapons were like that. The sword made out of the spine of a great beast, the sword made out of regrowing plant-metal.. And a shotgun, which he used against those who threatened him. He believed, fully, that if man wished to create weapons of war, he would die by them- there wasn't anything wrong with usage of firearms, so long they were used to slaughter and dispose of people who just dared to give him an evil eye. Hypocritical, yes, but in his own eyes, necessary.

That's why everything that Sun-Upon-Soil did was so detailed. From the assembling of ceramics, to taking care of his garden, it was done so to highlight the effort we had to put into our existence in order to thrive. How he had to gently and carefully take care of each individual flower without any reliance on fertilizers or modern tractors and plows, how you had to light a fire each night without any matches or lighters, how you had to check your hut for the tiniest of cracks or holes, making sure it's structurally sound. He was a simple, naturalistic character that had violent tendencies towards everything alien-

Because he simply didn't understand it. I think that was the trait I failed to show well. Sun-Upon-Soil wasn't racist, wasn't evil, nor was he cruel for no reason. He was just ignorant and unknowledgeable about things around him; he wouldn't understand that someone with asthma has an underlying condition and wasn't just weak, he wouldn't understand that an overweight person might have thyroid problems and wasn't just lazy, or how a person with glasses was just.. born that way. He didn't understand how a machine can create, he didn't see how a robot might feel and act like a fleshy being, nor did he comprehend the possibility of living in the balance between "then" and "now". He just never encountered it before, and he never understood it as well as he should've.

But at the same time, he was aggravated that nobody shared his beliefs. He languished that nobody followed his ways, he was mad that not a single soul that visited him so many times sat beside him, asked him how to hunt as he does, to cast bronze as he does, to make ceramics as he did. He was annoyed that he was unable to inspire affection for tradition and past in the hearts of everyone that came around, and just peered upon his garden of Eden. He was born wrong, he did evil deeds, and he harbored hate and malice towards all that was different, but he never had any thought or feeling of mocking those who asked him for his aid.

He saw weakness and comfort as something to be disposed of- but he would never, ever dare to raise his voice against someone who asked for aid. He always would see the world as a garden, on a grander scale, and people as budding flowers. He favored the beautiful, strong tulips, but his affection and heart always went to those weak, malnourished buds that.. against all odds, still blossomed. There was something he found so peculiar and pretty about the fact that even when faced with so much struggle and weakness on their path, they opted to give it their best, and become the best it could've been. That's why when his garden blossomed, he would trek around it, and seek the smallest, most fragile buds poking through the soil; and he would shower them with his blood. He couldn't possibly make them mature, but he could nudge them into becoming their perfect selves.

He always believed that true freedom may only be attained when one is liberated from any expectations, and can do what they want to. Where they don't have to worry about the stares of others, where they don't have to be scared of being pushed around and be exiled for the smallest misstep, or be shunned solely because they chose to go their own way. He saw cities and countries of concrete as nests of debauchery and mutually assured loathing and disgust guided at everyone and everything, ones that shackled everyone who was inside. He often compared it to himself- an office worker would have to look the same each day, work the same job, and always bow before his boss in order to make his ends meet, and then pay rent in order not to be kicked out.

Whereas Sun-Upon-Soil did what he wanted to. He walked where he wished, he did what he wanted, and he had nobody to be scared of, as he was his own, free man. He always believed that because of his own, personal liberty, where he didn't have to turn the other cheek whenever an opportunity arose, he could turn the other people to his own side, and show them the glory of being truly, fully "unrestrained". It was utter and complete freedom from the weight of civilization. Sure- Those humans in Haven might live for three times as long as he does, but he could proudly say that he lived a thousand lives in the time they only crawled through one. It was pride that fueled him, always.

Pride of his heritage, pride of his state, pride of his garden, of his craft, pride of his own state of being and the state of his body, and the pride of his absolute purity. Pride that he hasn't given up his ways to the tide of progress and technological wonder, pride that he hasn't sold his soul to some conglomerate of corporations, pride that at the end of the day, he could fully say that he lived, died, and did whatever he wanted to. That he was his own, sole man- and even if he was hated by everyone else, everywhere, he still could call himself liberated and free.

Sun-Upon-Soil; that even when the dark, thick smog of a city rose up and blotted out the sky, somewhere out there, a blue, warm firmament of heavens might shine brightly, and illuminate the many forests, parks, grasslands and rivers. That when that city fell and collapsed unto itself, it would take long- decades, perhaps centuries- for the green to spread through. He saw himself as an embodiment of the green, the nature, the trees, the plants, vines and steppe. That even if he died to a plasma gun, or was buried in the middle of a city, he would've died true to his ideals.. and perhaps in few thousand days, his decayed, corroded corpse would serve as biofuel for a spreading forest blossoming over the ruins of the very jungle of beton that he was laid to rest in.

Even when his garden was burned down twice, and even when his soulful speech gave way to him being killed by a glinting scope so far away, he refused to give up his ways and beliefs. It maybe was that subconscious hunch that he shouldn't give up, or the fact that he not only regrown his garden twice, or came back to life after his untimely demise, that his pride refused to back down. Whatever might've come his way- he always conquered and took pride in taking care of.

His love for nature was always stronger than his self-doubt. That's why his psion ability was meant to stimulate the growth of plants; he always, deep down, wished to see a world of nothing but grasses and plants everywhere, returned to the very first state it ever was. It wasn't an embodiment of destruction or total collapse of everything around him. It was a power that stimulated creation and blossom. It was an innate, personal desire to help everything around him get stronger, better, and more independent- be it a human, a patch of grass, or something as tiny as a nest full of unhatched eggs of a blue, whistling bird that met its demise during the burning of his most beloved garden.

--
@Caucasian Asian tell us about frosthand

 

huh?

 

no

 

what the hell!?!?!