Character Inspiration Thread

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Yz2, Sep 5, 2020.

  1. Yz2

    Yz2 Galactic Enforcer Staff Member Community Monitor Gold Donator

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    Man, fuck Honest thoughts, time to start a new circlejerk conversation topic.

    What are some sources of inspirations for your characters? Feel free to talk about books and media, existing characters who've provided traits for your OCs, or that hit animated series you've plagiarised 90% of your character from. Post images, aesthetics, anything you'd like.

    These threads always end up being people talking at each other instead of listening, and just waiting for their turn to speak. Here's the thread rule though, because fuck circlejerking:

    Only post the inspiration for ONE of your characters. And after posting, TAG another user who has a character that you're interesting in finding the inspiration behind. This one is more of a general request, but maybe try to tag someone who's outside of your friend group, so there's more variety and interaction across the playerbase, instead of only tagging between friends.
     
  2. Jestephos

    Jestephos Galactic Commoner Diamond Donator

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    hmm... i got inspiration for my character yz2000 from the hit show "Fat Clout Eat Out"
     
  3. .exe

    .exe Galactic Citizen Impervium Donator

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    Elijah Drachen Ulmer -> Inspiration came from viewing different images of Wehrmacht, Volksgrenadiers. Then I started sifting around for images of sheriff/detective like kind of art, then found what could be best described as Eli[​IMG]
     
  4. Yz2

    Yz2 Galactic Enforcer Staff Member Community Monitor Gold Donator

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    Fuck you fuck you tuck you fuck you, TAG SOMEONE and ask about their characters after you post about yours, that’s the whole point of the thread, fuck you, do t now before I bite into your head like a ripe pineapple
     
  5. .exe

    .exe Galactic Citizen Impervium Donator

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    you make me want to commit national crisis
     
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  6. Teldrassil

    Teldrassil Galactic Officer

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    Imma do two because one isn’t legal yet but I love them anyway. Will tag two people to make up for it.

    Hornet girl (el psion in the process if being passed) took some big inspiration from Jane Prentiss, a character from The Magnus Archived - a horror podcast, it’s spooky. I do not recommend you look her up to avoid spoilers but in GC terms I’d put her as a psion with some form of animal control that means she has a parasitic worm army that also uses her body as a hive.

    Okay nvm I can only think of inspiration for one character. Either I’m super original (eh) or subconsciously getting inspiration and not realising it (probably this one).

    @Kodakazi One of your chars that isn’t Xander @TurnWall Oenui
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2020
  7. zecon125

    zecon125 Lizzer Staff Member Moderator Bronze Donator

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    Thorn was inspired keyly by my own want to increase CRP and bar fights within the server. Partial inspiration was both taken from the Mario & Luigi series' depiction of Bowser, and from 9K's character Sulliver. He was my big, lumbering lad who wasn't the brightest but had enough wisdom to get himself out of most situations before they started, and punch his way out of anything he couldn't. At least, until Atlas happened.

    @Dekerrex Where'd Telroth come from?
     
  8. TriReef

    TriReef treef Staff Member Community Monitor Diamond Donator

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    I was watching a lot It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia when Wowgain came to me about making a Guanciale, so my initial reaction was to fully base Giorno on Dennis- That didn't turn out the best, though I think having that in mind helped a lot with some of his best moments. Later inspiration for his fashion came from Fear & Loathing because Hawaiian shirts are epic.

    @Pinkbat5 Tell me about Judith! @Skid Testament! Go!
     
  9. majo

    majo Magical Girl Ex-Staff

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    Ok ok ok ok

    So- I'm torn between explaining Masina and Leon, so I'll just do one and hope I get tagged because I LOVE talking about stuff like this and I could go on and on about it. Usually I only rant at WowGain about it because I feel like he's the only one who wants to hear me rant about stuff like this like the autismo I am.

    Masina has a ton of inspirations and a lot of it is really personal to me. So forgive me if this gets really sappy or weird.

    So- first off, media, Riko from Made in Abyss, Madoka Kaname, Sayaka Miki, and Kyoko Sakura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and a teeny bit of Psycho Pass, CSI, and Law and Order. From Riko I took Masina's background as an explorer and spelunker. From Madoka I took her pigtails, general outlook of idealism and altruism, and also the bubbly ditzyness. However that inspiration has been shifted more onto Masina's sister Aluna now that Masina has grown out of some of that. From Sayaka I took her brashness and how deluded her idealism became, how she channels her feelings into self destructive tendencies. From Kyoko I took her anger, her conviction, and Masina's eventual guardedness. Psycho Pass, CSI, and Law and Order are all like- kind of obvious given that she's a cop, lol.

    More personal stuff now. Masina means a lot to me on a personal level. I've put a lot of my own story onto her. So when she started out, she had cancer and came from a religious background that stifled and abused her. A lot of the time I will take what happened to myself and exaggerate it greatly to help convey a narrative more clearly. Since this is particularly recent- I took my own battles with illness and exaggerated them. For a large portion of my life I've felt at odds with my own body because of some undiagnosed issues I had... probably for longer than I even realize. So once that was fixed, her psionics turned against her. Something truly out of her and anybody else's power, something she can't fix, and only something she can try to maintain and attempt to stop hurting herself, and now others. It's also a bit of a double metaphor to me, because having been through a large amount of trauma myself, I find myself realizing that I've developed toxic behaviors that I have to manage in order to not continue the cycle, so to speak. I feel like Masina's psionics reflect that, or at least I try to convey that the best I can, especially since Masina more or less developed her powers as a result. Trauma doesn't start or stop with the person inflicting it, it always spreads to the victim, and tries to twist them into an abuser themselves. The way that she tries to stop it, struggles to do so, and ends up hurting the people she cares about, lashing out at them with anger and fear, just makes me think of someone struggling with those toxic behaviors and trying to keep them at bay.

    Whoa! That was really revealing and I've typed up way too much but I'm gunna post it anyway. @Khaos Tell me about Tanze!
     
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  10. AD INFINITUM

    AD INFINITUM Watcher from The Void Ex-Staff Gold Donator

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    Telroth was made out of necessity as Trireef wanted something GMed that I was doing, The Sanctuary District, where Remnants from The Void Swimmer were taken to after their ship was destroyed and their populations captured. The Sanctuary District was a very poor ghetto neighborhood made quickly and cheaply to host the sudden influx of life. The government was in shambles and didnt care about its people, and thus the people began running the joint. The Sanctuary District became host to gang wars, druglords, and slave trafficking. I wanted this to be made quite blatant, so one of the first characters Trireef's B-19 met was one of these traffickers and druglords.

    Unlike most of my characters, very little thought went into Telroth initially, as he was designed to be an NPC to be forgotten in a days time. his name I pulled out of thin air after watching some Dunmer lore, and his original description was something along the lines "a well fed pink remnant wearing tattered clothes but enough fine linens and jewelry to tell apart from the others"
    [​IMG]
    As the plot stuff with B-19 continued in the sanctuary district, I began growing Telroth's character as needed. He took up biker gang aesthetics in his outfit and role. He was outwardly extremely harsh and almost merciless because he thought they were needed in order to survive and thrive in this urban hell. He however had a softer docile side as he took good care of his family and the florans he had captured for his 'club' as to show some redeeming quality to this otherwise distastefully pink asshole.
    By the time Telroth made his way to Haven he was already fairly developed, but he never had a defined backstory, and I liked it that way. Like his origins, the backstory would come as needed, and as I saw dramatically fit. Even to this day, large chunks of his backstory are up in the air, ready to be filled as the narrative needed.

    In short, he wasn't so much inspired as he was a conglomeration of "Well shit, I need to make a product of this situation" and it blossomed from there. Despite this, Telroth did play a pivotal role in me realizing where I really needed to take remnants in the future, culturally especially.


    @Caucasian Asian Where'd Frosthand come from?
     
  11. Pinkbat5

    Pinkbat5 pocl v3.6.7 Staff Member Moderator Diamond Donator

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    Judith started as the player character to my first successful Cultist Simulator playthrough. I was enamoured by the narrative style and the endless collecting and studying of weird books, all of which had really specific origins and descriptions that I liked. The way the game worked really felt like I was playing a character, so I ended up trying to make that character later. I suddenly got a good idea for what I wanted her to look like in high school chemistry one day, and drew a sketch as fast as I could.
    A lot of her physical traits come directly from my playstyle in cultist sim. She’s good at sniffing out obscure information because that’s what you do in the game. And she’s physically pretty strong, because I maxed out my strength in that playthrough. I guess she works out.
    I’m not really sure why I decided she’d be a therapist, I just thought it fit her.
    She’s still pretty underdeveloped compared to CE, Dave and Archie, but I’m planning on fixing that as I play her more. I think I should change her career though, it’s not super fun playing a therapist.
    @Quazwerty456 Robin Flynn?
     
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  12. Yz2

    Yz2 Galactic Enforcer Staff Member Community Monitor Gold Donator

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    I’ll fill in my own char later or see if there’s a tag, but for now:

    @zirconzz you.

    tell me about Sofia.
     
  13. Skid

    Skid God Incarnate Staff Member Community Monitor Diamond Donator

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    what the fuck, you cant do this to me trireef?

    Man, it's been literal years since I first made Testament. I'm pretty sure they're the third character I've made on GC, after Wright and Taylor. While a small bit of his portrayal after I returned to GC takes inspiration from Mordred from Fate/, Testament was originally the result of Reggie (miss that lad) telling me tales about old GC and my desire to write a character that was more chaotic in nature than my other two. There's... not much else I can remember from when I made him, to be entirely honest.

    @majo because i can tell you want to leon go
     
  14. zirconzz

    zirconzz da guy Staff Member Community Monitor Gold Donator

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    my turn.

    Sofia’s appearance was inspired by the “protagonist” from the music video Pixel Galaxy, by Snail’s House. Other then that Sofia was a result of me just wanting a pilot character, something I had wanted for years because it was just a fun concept to play with. Her being Artyom’s daughter was a result of me not really enjoying playing Artyom at the time. She served as a sort of replacement for me to use in Atlas.

    In a few ways she sorta originally started as a human version of Seru, as I found that kind of personality very fun to play and a large deviation from what my characters usually acted like at that point, but as time went on I did my best to differentiate them. Inspirations at the time, particularly for her love of metal music, came from Aggretsuko.

    Characters like Haida and Retsuko influenced Sofia’s style and music preference heavily. When she became a mech pilot, especially right after I had watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, it had a big influence on her. I started basing her off of characters like Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami in addition to previous inspirations. Basically most of her inspirations come from me being a weeb.

    @Cheffy Tell me about either Sam or Blair...
     
  15. majo

    majo Magical Girl Ex-Staff

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    Hey! Thanks Skid.

    Leon's a really big mix of inspirations similar to Masina.

    When I made Leon, I didn't have a lot of specific inspirations from media and other outside sources, but rather ones I've realized retroactively? I think the first and most obvious is Kite from HxH with his Crazy Slots and gambling. Sons of Anarchy is a show I haven't watched in a long time, but still is pretty pervasive in the gang related narratives I write. Another big inspiration is just music in general and the personalities behind it. Orville Peck specifically with his masked gothic-punk cowboy aesthetic is really something I've enjoyed and funneled into his design, though for Leon it tends to lean more punk. Metallica, Post Malone, even Motley Crue and Harry Styles. I look for distinct styles, people who capture the persona of a musician not just in skill but in look and persona. An inspiration I'm keeping in my back pocket is the movie Perfect Blue. I'm waiting to pull it out at just the right time.

    As for personal inspiration, there's a lot here similarly to Masina, just in different ways.

    For a long time I struggled to play male characters. I was always worried they wouldn't feel "masculine" enough because I tend to base a lot of my characters around myself and my experiences, and a lot of the time those experiences felt directly molded by being a woman in a lot of ways. Mixed with an admittedly bad history with men, it was always a struggle for me to feel comfortable putting on a man's shoes for roleplay.

    Then it crossed my mind to make a male character specifically designed for a me to connect with. So I took my worry of being able to play a man, and put it into Leon's own worry of not being "man" enough because of some of his demons. He exemplifies my worry of developing a addictive personality, with his heavy drinking and gambling. He is neurotic like me, though exaggeratedly so, prone to mood swings and mania, even delusions if he gets worked up enough. I think potentially out of any of my characters, his struggle with mental health is most like my own in that way. Similar to Masina- I like to think of Leon's use of his psionics as part of his struggle to shake off his past and become a better person out of it. He has more control over is powers than Masina does, which always makes his lapse into using them underhandedly feel a bit more like a struggle within himself instead of a struggle against an outside force.

    Though, despite those flaws, in a lot of ways Leon is a love letter to the good men in my life. I've taken traits from my significant other (love you <3 @WowGain ), my family, and my friends that I think are really positive that directly contradict the bad history I've had. Leon's a good person, or at least he tries to be, and thats part of why I love him and playing him so much.

    Again I feel like maybe I wrote waaaaay too much, but oh well. It feels like cheating but I really want to know @PrivateNomad Do Sinji or Aurelie and @WowGain Do Creva or Caesar
     
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  16. PrivateNomad

    PrivateNomad There goes my hero, watch him as he goes Staff Member Technician Gold Donator Event Builder

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    Sinji was based off of Rukey Greentail from Pyre, just in appearance and personality, since I wanted to make a Rantori. He's changed significantly since then and is basically the poster child for the American dream, an impoverished sick immigrant that struck it big in Haven.

    Aurelie wasn't really inspired by anything in particular. Maybe Hisoka a little bit just in how much she obsesses over power.
     
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  17. PrivateNomad

    PrivateNomad There goes my hero, watch him as he goes Staff Member Technician Gold Donator Event Builder

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    oh yeah uhh @Nemo brutal star
     
  18. Cheffy

    Cheffy La Creatura Bronze Donator

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    Alright! Blair then

    The concept from where Blair started was, honestly, the shade of a character's hair that an artist I followed drew, a fantastic wine red. And it spun off from there. I wanted to make an out-going, flirty character that hand their hands dipped into the less than morally good side of things, from drugs, to weird stuff, to extortion. Sadly a lot of those things fell through because... Blair doesn't ever have a reason to really do that kind of thing- but continuing.

    I pondered which species to make her for a good long while. Going from Synthetic, to Anoloa, to Hylotl and Remnant, until I finally decided to settle on Vampyr for a number of reasons.

    The biggest one being that they were cool as hell and I wanted to finally make one. Other than that though, they fit what I was searching for. A fun aesthetic, interesting mutations I could play around with, a possible gateway into La'Megoth things. All things I wanted to do.

    From that point onwards though, I wondered about how to make her unique from other Vampyr characters so far, so I started digging through mutations. Minor regeneration, extendable claws, paralyzing venom- that last one was actually what began the spiral into making Blair's strain, the Caligo. How, you may ask. It's simple. I wondered for a good long time of how to make a venom that was useful, but would actually see use in RP. The first idea was to paralyze the person she bit and injected, boring and mainly something for CRP along with the fact that no matter how much I looked there wasn't exactly a way to make it non-lethal and that's no fun if it isn't. And from there, I got a suggestion from a friend. Drug venom. It took a bit of thinking from there, planning, figuring things out with other people helping me. But eventually, Blair's new strain was born. A more serpentine Vampyric bloodline with a venom that they needed to inject into people, a venom that was a highly addictive drug. And from that point onwards, Blair the character was brought on server, and things spiraled off from there. Her starting to own a number of different businesses across the Fringe, from an apothecary on Haven that sold odd things she had collected, to a strip club on Baldr's, to several other locations, all bringing in funds for her newly founded Vampyric house.

    @9K Belle inspiration, go.
     
  19. 9K

    9K Galactic Officer Staff Member Administrator Diamond Donator

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    There wasn't much "inspiration" for Belle per se, but a lot of characters before on GC, and in other communities were really combat-able, always in armor, always heavily armed or otherwise just killbots, and I was kind of guilty of it too. Up until I came back to GC again, all I'd ever played were robotic characters, and it wasn't because I was hellbent on being a CRP god or whatever. I just liked them at the time, but over time I got kind of bored with that, and I realized it may have been hindering my writing some, because it's hard to give a good personality to those kinds of characters and to characterize them. And it was also hard to make sense of the backgrounds I wrote for them which admittedly had holes and flaws. It definitely wasn't my best writing. The premise for those characters weren't ever grounded enough.

    So, I wanted to make the opposite pretty much. I just grabbed a character sheet template when I got committed to RPing here again so I could start writing up a character who read and played like a normal person. I just wanted someone who was more social and immediately approachable that didn't even look the part of someone who an average Fringe-goer had to worry about like, pulling a gun on them or having some other bad, hidden motives or whatever; a friendly face to just about everyone. It's helped me learn where my best writing does come from. I almost never have trouble figuring out what to type next when I'm playing Belle. That lesson into my own writing's even carried over into my other newer characters, like Senaschesche.

    @StoneBasilisk Sydney.
     
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  20. Nemo

    Nemo Leader of the Rat Crew Staff Member Community Monitor Diamond Donator

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    aurelionite gijinka aurelionite gijinka

    I made Brutal as a throwaway for the first Prisilite Prix. She was based on one of my characters from Eden Fall but adapted for GC's vastly different setting. Initially she was just my attempt at a loud, dramatic, over-the-top Speed Racer character who was just hyper obsessed with racing. She was also planned to be a lot grittier and violent, borderline psychopathic, but there has and always been an abundance of that so I decided to make her a vigilante who acted like Superman but fought like Batman. I prefer Batman-esque heroes who don't actually have any superpowers but she also had to be crazy/stupid enough to take on people with ridiculous augments so I gave her some chuuni tendencies cause I think chuunis are funny little creatures. Her chuuni-isms aren't based on anything, I just make complicated names for mundane things and tack 'SHINING' on the front.

    The name Brutal Star comes from Pokemon (Toxapex is the 'Brutal Star' pokemon cause its a starfish, and I like toxic stall) and her outfit is based on Proto Man.

    @D&K dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane dane
     
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