Your Characters (I want to know about them)

Yeah, basically what the title says.  But I don't mean the pen-on-paper stuff.  Most of us have made profiles, and we can check stats and histories and equipment and personalities and family and friends and etc. at any time.  That's not quite what I'm asking.

I'm curious about why you made your characters.  What was their original purpose?  How have they changed and evolved over time?  What events made you change your mind about them?  Have you ever discarded them only to bring them back?  Have you ever THOUGHT about getting rid of your characters, and if so, why?  Are you happy with how your character is now or do you wish you could make them harder, better, stronger, faster?

I want to know.  If you've got more than one character, feel free to share all your answers!  I'll give you an example from my own roster.

Celia.  Most of you know her, all of you are going to love her.  She's not too bright and she's quite finicky, and her birthday's coming up on the server's calendar (December 14th)!  ...but she's lovable, adorable, and perhaps the most fun Mass Effect character I play.

In the games, Mordin Solus had a pretty profound impact on me (if you couldn't tell already) and from him my interest in the salarian species spiraled out of control.  I read the Mass Effect Wikia over and over, searched for fanworks of salarians, any scrap of STG or culture I could find--that eventually lead me to the Mass Effect RPing community, and to Celia.  

Her original purpose was to be female.  I literally sat down and said to myself, "I want to make a female salarian."  The name and story were an enormous struggle to finalize, and even now I'm still revising it and modifying it.  Originally she was a genetic experiment from the STG, which caused her sterility and eventual path down the soldier/doctor route, but that story has never been entirely satisfying.  Never minding the cliche approach and the fact that almost all salarian soldiers come from some STG background, it didn't make 100% sense to me at any point.  At best it was a passable story with enormous plot holes that would never be explored.

Then, I had ze talk with Filtershakes.  He brought up an avenue of opportunity that, I realized, I had never, EVER explored with ANY other character I have EVER made.  Transgender.  Given my understanding of the salarian species, transgender would actually be a much better way of explaining Celia as a female salarian outside of politics and interested in a medical field (genetics).  That rounded back to her original purpose, "I want to make a female salarian."  



And this was the process for just ONE of my characters.  XD  So what about you?  Tell me everything to know about your perspective of your own characters.  Leave no detail unexplored.

I made Uriel because Drell are known to be a sort of a religious race with their old culture dying out due to 85% of their people being wiped out. Seeing as how most of the people I know of nowadays are atheist and how religion isn't touched on a lot in Mass Effect (For obvious reasons) I thought it would of been different to bring in a character who's decisions and morals come from a religious point of view instead of what would be known as the norm.

Also it's totally not because some of the races I wanted to do were already blacklisted.

I made Ferdinand to be a combo of Mordin Solous and Rogal Dorne from If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device.

Shultz is literally based slightly off Wash from Firefly and Apollo from BSG. Other then that, he's whatever I fucking WANT him to be.

No one probably knows this guy cause I've only started to recently get on the server, but...

I made Kjell cause I wanted to look at aliens from an outside perspective. Not one like Ashley Williams where they already hold prejudice against them, but one where they simply have a lack of knowledge on the aliens and their cultures+traditions. Someone who may confuse two genders and offend because he truthfully knows nothing about them.
That, and I also wanted to fulfill the Farm Boy trope.

Zae is the person that tries to tackle too much in her life at once and it ends up falling over on her in the end.

Kravis wrote:I made Uriel because Drell are known to be a sort of a religious race with their old culture dying out due to 85% of their people being wiped out. Seeing as how most of the people I know of nowadays are atheist and how religion isn't touched on a lot in Mass Effect (For obvious reasons) I thought it would of been different to bring in a character who's decisions and morals come from a religious point of view instead of what would be known as the norm.

Also it's totally not because some of the races I wanted to do were already blacklisted.

That's really interesting. Yeah, religion is something I don't touch much in my characters, mostly because I know next to nothing about being religious. Never was raised religious. Did you have any other reasons for making your character a drell?

VSterminator7 wrote:I made Ferdinand to be a combo of Mordin Solous and Rogal Dorne from If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device.

Really? Why'd you choose those two personalities? How about, why did you name him Ferdinand? XD

I can come up with a ton of questions for you, so if you don't wanna be grilled you better pipe up.

Satan wrote:Shultz is literally based slightly off Wash from Firefly and Apollo from BSG. Other then that, he's whatever I fucking WANT him to be.

Well, has Shultz changed much since you first conceptualized him? Is he a different incarnation in this Singularity v2.0, or is he more similar to his 1.0 self? What about his appearance? I saw you changed him to not have a beard anymore. Why'd you do that?

I want your perspective on your own characters, not just descriptions of your characters.

HoneyElk wrote:No one probably knows this guy cause I've only started to recently get on the server, but...

I made Kjell cause I wanted to look at aliens from an outside perspective. Not one like Ashley Williams where they already hold prejudice against them, but one where they simply have a lack of knowledge on the aliens and their cultures+traditions. Someone who may confuse two genders and offend because he truthfully knows nothing about them.
That, and I also wanted to fulfill the Farm Boy trope.

That's actually pretty sweet. Many of my characters are similar but opposite; I make mine exclusively aliens because I want to look through the aliens' eyes and see what the galaxy looks like to them. And it's fun to look at the human race through a lens, too. XD

Farm boys FTW! Do you usually have to try pretty hard to make your character "accidentally" offend someone, or does it come naturally to him?

Pianotugboat wrote:Zae is the person that tries to tackle too much in her life at once and it ends up falling over on her in the end.

That, eh, is not quite the question I was asking but okay. XD How about, what was your inspiration for Zae? Why do you want her to (supposedly) fail at everything she does, or does that just happen naturally?

The point of this thread is to get creator's insight on their creations, much like commentary over film.

I take Mordin's will to create rather than destroy. And the rest from Rogal Dorne's bluntness.
And Ferdinand is just the name template for my RP chars besides Matt Jones.

Shultz has changed over the years.
Younger Shultz was a manipulated little shit who would literally try to bang everything that had a pulse. He was a honestly a awful human being when he was younger.

Though his Older Self grew up and become a more serious professional type after his failed marriage and his daughter. His Daughter, he literally only cares about her right now and is doing everything he can for her. Being a Asari, he won't be around as long as he wishes to be so hes desperately trying to set everything right for her before he passes. 

His appearance itself hasn't changed I just don't have his old model. He shaved his beard icly and is letting it regrow.

Midgard is a Varren. He is apparently as cute as a button despite probably being about as big as a rather diminutive Tiger. Hell if I know whether or not they have a story to tell - it's not like nobody'll ever know, despite how I've consolidated making a headcanon for them. I make him stare at things, and I make people nervous it seems. More than that though, it's fun pissing about on them. All is well.

Anything else just isn't as fun, so far.

Crystallized0Rose wrote:

Kravis wrote:I made Uriel because Drell are known to be a sort of a religious race with their old culture dying out due to 85% of their people being wiped out. Seeing as how most of the people I know of nowadays are atheist and how religion isn't touched on a lot in Mass Effect (For obvious reasons) I thought it would of been different to bring in a character who's decisions and morals come from a religious point of view instead of what would be known as the norm.

Also it's totally not because some of the races I wanted to do were already blacklisted.

That's really interesting.  Yeah, religion is something I don't touch much in my characters, mostly because I know next to nothing about being religious.  Never was raised religious.  Did you have any other reasons for making your character a drell?

Well. Besides how cool Thane was in ME2 when I first played it. IT really like their race's backstory on how they are a potentially doomed species due to under-population. Also because the badass coats they have. But it's mainly because they are one of the more mature races of the Galaxy that aren't very brutish.

Zar is... well.



Pretty self explanatory.

Crystallized0Rose wrote:

HoneyElk wrote:No one probably knows this guy cause I've only started to recently get on the server, but...

I made Kjell cause I wanted to look at aliens from an outside perspective. Not one like Ashley Williams where they already hold prejudice against them, but one where they simply have a lack of knowledge on the aliens and their cultures+traditions. Someone who may confuse two genders and offend because he truthfully knows nothing about them.
That, and I also wanted to fulfill the Farm Boy trope.

That's actually pretty sweet.  Many of my characters are similar but opposite; I make mine exclusively aliens because I want to look through the aliens' eyes and see what the galaxy looks like to them.  And it's fun to look at the human race through a lens, too.  XD

Farm boys FTW!  Do you usually have to try pretty hard to make your character "accidentally" offend someone, or does it come naturally to him?

Thanks for looking at him! Most of Kjell's offensive run-ins with aliens typically result in him mistaking them for another race or confusing their two genders. Often times it either ends with the alien being understanding and giving him a short insight on their culture and biology and what not, or they end up becoming pretty tense with him. I know one of the Turians, Alcae Kurius, isn't exactly friendly with Kjell after he mistook her for a male.

Luke was created originally as somewhat of an experiment, that was - what if I took numerous different characters and people, elements from each of them, and shoved it into one. The characters in particular I decided on as Luke's inspiration were Mark Watney from the Martian - for general Charisma/Sense of Humor, Kaidan Alenko - for the biotic aspect and his general attitude professionally, Marcus Luttrell - for his upbringing and lifestyle, And of course, Shepard - though that only really tied in with the N7 and Paragon style.

He hasn't changed much from the influence of those characters, but I think I took just enough from each that them mixing together isn't detrimental, and makes Luke stand on his own more than enough as an original character. Overall i've been really happy with Luke as a character, i'm able to interact with everyone reasonably well because he's a charismatic and fun guy, but he is able to swap into a much more serious attitude when it's needed, he's all-round good and fun to play.

[rant]

Xeria started out as a white-suited helpful and optimistic Quarian to be honest, most people forget the fact that the "SYAS" black-envirosuit was the second one to be used.

Over the time, admins of MERP1 deployed their OP characters that were only used to fuck around with other players for the sake of enjoyment.
As that, I changed Xeria aswell, trying to match up to them and defend the players who up until that point were left on their own.

A few series of demotions, bans and temporary kills later it was still a struggle.
A Quarian who stood up for other people and died for them, a story that is common but was never intended, it was developed.

Today Xeria is a reflection of what she was back then.
Pessimistic, low-expectation, narcissistic, demanding Quarian stepping out of the standard line in pursuit of being part of the history books.
So far nobody has addressed why she wears a Prothean shard necklace or has the extranet search history filled with topics about Asari and their biotic units.

The event that changed the character ICly completely was "Tinkle, Tailor, Soldier Slaver" during which Xeria was leading the front-line fight aginst the slaves who took colony of New Canton, and despite being shot several times and kept on lifesupport forever after the event, Urdnot Kurr was given all the praise and decorated for his heroic act of sitting back and waiting.

So if you ever look at me and think I am shady, striving for goals which are impossible by lore, stepping out of my ranks...
Just remember...
5 Years ago we had a whole community of people like that which took their turns talking to Reapers ( http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/903240950720289906/8A5CDFB0B45DCD0533C009B612C4BB6B8180537C/ ) and licking Prothean Relics ( http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/903241775312684892/77AF3299D0322F1CAF75C3334C0303C1B026E71F/ ) and I was the only one who was not allowed to do such and was punished for back-talking the old SA staff about their self-righteous decisions.

[/rant]

I started my character Luma roughly half way through merp1. She was created as I started to get bored of my slightly op Asari. The plan was I wanted to make a less op character and focus more on personality. The character started rather basic. Trying to get on with everyone. However I changed that. As she got more praise she got more cocky. When this happened she started to question superiors. Then argue from time to time. Most notably a radio argument with commander alcae. However when alcae snapped back and nearly executed her she shrunk back down. Becoming far mote shy as she blindly followed orders. The character had started to regain her confidence. Which with the appearance of custom textures. Notably Xeria and Piano who have both helped me create and mount a texture. Left me with a darker look to the char. She took on the more edgy appearance she had now. Which in turn changed her to the slightly hot headed character I play now. She maintains the shyness but keeps the cocky behaviour in combat. Rarely arguing with superiors anymore. Besides the her vs major cape incident. Nowadays luma tends to take little seriously until she's actually in danger. (wrote this on top of a mountain. Plus 1 edgy.)

Alicia is a character very close to my heart for numerous reasons. I have a lot of characters, and I like to think each of them is a different part of me. My bookworm High Elf Adelaide is my goodwill and my passion for reading, while my boneheaded french Lambda member Danielle is my hostility and drive for justice, and my Quarian Lil'Drah is my deep rooted fear of being rejected socially. Alicia is my cleverness and my sassy personality, the majority of her wit is mine. You can ask me to write anything for her and I can do it, her voice comes naturally to me while I need to think for others like Adelaide, Danielle and Lil'Drah. She's also my kindness, I like to think, and my fairness. She's objective and when she can't be, she won't be.

If it's been hard to tell, Alicia Liddel has been inspired by the real-life Alice Liddell, who was Lewis Carroll's inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. As Alice in Wonderland is another story very close to me, this automatically makes Alicia super precious to me since she's been inspired by such a strange and whimsical tale that was a big part of my childhood (which makes a harrowing amount of sense.)

Alicia was first made as a quick throwaway character on the beta iteration of Site 86, a Clockwork SCP RP server that came extremely popular for about a year or so in 2014 I want to say. I'm close friends with both of the owners and so I was invited to a bit of a closed beta, when the server was whitelisted and it was only 3 or 4 people there. She was a British Geneticist involved in very closed, top-secret research into something called the Warrior Gene, a real-life occurrence of a gene that is believed to be linked to sociopathic, violent and anti-social actions in people. This is when I really started to sculpt her character, at this point she was just a random character I had made to test out a new place to play.

Then I started to develop her and I began to learn her personality. Funnily enough I never really create concrete personalities for my characters, I give them a name and a face and see where they take me. She was instantly witty and funny, and disregarding of most authority even if it got her in deep trouble, especially in a place like a Foundation site. She had a very long-standing and plot important relationship with the head of security that caused some incredible development with her, including a miscarriage, an assassination attempt, a cat, and a broken heart. One of the few times I truly cried for a character and her pain, there were some absolutely amazing moments with that server that can still bring me to tears.

I never really used Alicia much after Site 86 shut down, there wasn't much of a point. Alicia is a scientist, and wouldn't really fit into a HL2 or Fantasy landscape. So I shut her down for then, and I turned my attention to other characters on other servers. Then I decided to bring her back as a doctor, which is where the current version of her sits, the newest one. A doctor in the Mass Effect universe. Her backstory has fluctuated a little and I've taken from some other characters- The idea of her mother being a Diplomat and her father as a Doctor is taken from my analyst character Joellyn from another server. She's mostly remained the same, in terms of her siblings and her distant relationship to the other women in her family. The big part of her backstory from SCP I had to cut was Alicia being a massive equestrian, like me in real life. It sadly wouldn't work in a Mass Effect universe.

In terms of appearances, Alicia's faceclaim is Natalie Dormer. Natalie is one of my favorite actresses, her performance in Elementary continues to blow me away years later as she crushed her role completely and outshone the rest of the cast. She did help inspire and shape a bit of Alicia in terms of her wit and the way she speaks, some mannerisms, but for the most part all she's donated to Alice is a face and a voice. Natalie has been Alicia's faceclaim for years and I don't see me changing that in a long while.

All in all, Alicia's a part of me, like all my characters are. There's a line somewhere between an expression on paper and a true person in terms of personality and feelings, and I think Alicia crossed that line for me a while ago. To me, she's as real as anybody. Thinking up her lines and reactions is as easy as breathing, and writing for her has never been hard. Every one of my characters borrows a bit of me when I play them, but Alicia never asked for too much. I can put the right amount of effort in where it doesn't kill my personality or my spirit to be her, but that she can exist and live alongside me with her own independent thought and goals. It's always so hard to make characters like that, and I plan to cherish her and use her until I can't do that any longer.

I wrote far too much, and probably answered questions that weren't asked, but it felt pretty good to write this. I wonder sometimes if by playing these characters if we find escape in it, or if we simply change skins to become someone we admire or wish to be. Or we just do it for fun. I won't stop till I've found out, I suppose.

I've taken my stimulants can u tell lol

TheMightyDRGN wrote:Midgard is a Varren. He is apparently as cute as a button despite probably being about as big as a rather diminutive Tiger. Hell if I know whether or not they have a story to tell - it's not like nobody'll ever know, despite how I've consolidated making a headcanon for them. I make him stare at things, and I make people nervous it seems. More than that though, it's fun pissing about on them. All is well.

Anything else just isn't as fun, so far.

You have a headcanon for varren? That's something I've never heard before. What's your headcanon for them? And why do you make him stare at random things? XD Do you take inspiration for him being like a dog, or like a cat, or like some other animal?

Kravis wrote:Well. Besides how cool Thane was in ME2 when I first played it. IT really like their race's backstory on how they are a potentially doomed species due to under-population. Also because the badass coats they have. But it's mainly because they are one of the more mature races of the Galaxy that aren't very brutish.

Hehehe, amen to that. I romanced him (although it was only because I was curious about how it would turn out and I had already researched the romancing for Garrus so I knew all the cutscenes for him).

Do you think your drell takes after Thane at all? Or his son?

Gungi wrote:Zar is... well.


Pretty self explanatory.

Zar, please. No trolling. Be serious, or don't bother contributing anything.

HoneyElk wrote:Thanks for looking at him! Most of Kjell's offensive run-ins with aliens typically result in him mistaking them for another race or confusing their two genders. Often times it either ends with the alien being understanding and giving him a short insight on their culture and biology and what not, or they end up becoming pretty tense with him. I know one of the Turians, Alcae Kurius, isn't exactly friendly with Kjell after he mistook her for a male.

I cannot wait for Kjell to meet Celia--or, wait. He might not even know that much about salarians. Because of that he might be the only one who can tell straight off the bat that she is actually female! XD

I bet it's tons of fun for you to play someone like that. For me it's always fun to play a slightly stupid character because they get to make such outlandish statements without fear of the consequences.

Elliott Foster was originally meant to be an opposite for my first character; Ryley Tyrell, who got shot in the lung for his first mission and got carted off for treatment. Whereas Ryley was a nineteen year old who was pretty much afraid and anxious of everything for several reasons, Elliott is a pretty arrogant son of a bitch when it comes to danger, is the biggest adrenaline junkie I think I've ever played but he's also a chill dude who enjoys making friends and socializing with those that he's working with. He's also my first attempt at taking a backstory that people would find edgy and making the character a bit of a curve ball to throw them off and prove them completely wrong. Some good folk can come from bad places, after all... Even if they did enjoy the fuck out of what they did.

Though let's be honest, Elliott's now my main character and I love playing him because of the way I've made him.

Oh, and I still strive to be able to roleplay with myself; on a Halo RP I think I hold the crowning achievement of leading an ODST squad made of NPCs, giving them personalities and using /it for their actions for about three days straight, with Pundii and Pinkie as my witness.

I have no life.

Hehehe, amen to that.  I romanced him (although it was only because I was curious about how it would turn out and I had already researched the romancing for Garrus so I knew all the cutscenes for him).

Do you think your drell takes after Thane at all?  Or his son?

Uriel defiantly takes after a few traits of Thane's. He's as religious as Thane is, if not more than he is already but the memory sequences that Uriel experiences are more depressing/tragic than Thane's memories of his assassinations. At one point I debated on him being a former priest however I didn't think it would of suit the environment that we're in now.

Holy enormous post.  But I love it.  This is exactly what I was asking for.  XD  Lemme try to break this down to respond to you...

MadMax wrote:Alicia is a character very close to my heart for numerous reasons. I have a lot of characters, and I like to think each of them is a different part of me.

Many roleplayers feel the same way.  It's impossible to count the number of times this aspect of our characters has been brought up, but every one takes a little piece of you and ends up building up off that and branching out from it. It might seem funny to say this, but they take on lives of their own almost completely out of your control.

MadMax wrote:Alicia was first made as a quick throwaway character on the beta iteration of Site 86....This is when I really started to sculpt her character, at this point she was just a random character I had made to test out a new place to play.

The most profound are the least expected.  No one expects throwaway characters to amount to much but our own creativity surprises us all the time.  Many times I've made some throwaway characters, but it's like once you give them a name it's hard to let them go.

And yes I know that's to do with psychology and attachment but, it's more mystical to think of it my way.

MadMax wrote:She had a very long-standing and plot important relationship with the head of security that caused some incredible development with her, including a miscarriage, an assassination attempt, a cat, and a broken heart. One of the few times I truly cried for a character and her pain, there were some absolutely amazing moments with that server that can still bring me to tears.

Wow...

Wait, a cat?  What?  XD

MadMax wrote:All in all, Alicia's a part of me, like all my characters are. There's a line somewhere between an expression on paper and a true person in terms of personality and feelings, and I think Alicia crossed that line for me a while ago. To me, she's as real as anybody....It's always so hard to make characters like that, and I plan to cherish her and use her until I can't do that any longer.

Aye. Most people struggle trying to make their character seem real, and I think it's usually because they forget to include flaws, but that's besides the point. We can rant about that another day.

MadMax wrote:I wrote far too much, and probably answered questions that weren't asked, but it felt pretty good to write this. I wonder sometimes if by playing these characters if we find escape in it, or if we simply change skins to become someone we admire or wish to be. Or we just do it for fun. I won't stop till I've found out, I suppose.

I've taken my stimulants can u tell lol

It's something that's hard to answer and it's probably unique to every individual.  For me, playing these characters gives me a chance to look at the world through a new lens and with new filters.  Things that are important to me suddenly end up looking like garbage and I am able to understand both points of view.  It's as much about developing my characters as it is developing my understanding of the real world we live in now and the worlds they inhabit; the stark contrasts, the unsettling similarities, and the fantasy of imagining what things are like 100+ years in the future.

And yes, yes I can.  XD

While I have only recently started on the server, I think I can sum Elliot up in a pseudo-simple way...

I normally write very intellectual characters. Individuals with experience to a degree, brains, and a very deep-seated psychological problem for each of them, likely planted within the floorboards of their psyche.

Elliot Edward Bellfray was an experiment in his own right, being the first character I had even -Made- on this server. But he was meant to be something -Wholly- different. You could call him my first attempt at a walking tragedy waiting to happen.

While most of my previous works were with characters who had some sort of major incident influence the way they think and proceed with life.. Death of a family member, contraction or fear of contracting a disease.. Different ideological beliefs... Flat-out racism against other species...

Elliot is, and was meant to be, one of the few souls on the London who really, -Really- did not want to be there. He never quite wanted to be a Marine, either. He did it on a whim, and somehow made it through his training, and was sent to the Joint Task Force as a possible death sentence by his former Lieutenant on Watson. He has no combat experience. Has never killed another being of any sort. He is the first character I have written who is genuinely, inescapably vulnerable in his current situation. Most of the others have had some sort of fall-back.. A mental defensive mechanism. Elliot, meanwhile, is the unwilling, sent by the unskilled, to do the unknown for the uncaring. He knows this, and he is terrified. He has his moments of clarity, having been through emergency medical training, and likes to think he has himself well in hand.. And, don't get it wrong, he is capable of doing what he must. Tell him to guard a hall, he will guard it. Tell him to retrieve a fallen ally and, despite his reservations about their species (Being a Terra Firma voter), he will grab them. But, like a Federal soldier at the First Battle of Bull Run, he has no idea what he's getting into.

I'd say that's enough to get him antsy, huh?

Going deeper, his tendency to lean towards Terra Firma is a secondary defensive mechanism... Fear, filtered into political debates..

A final summary of Elliot could be... A being who, unlike most, feels that he has no control over his life. And this scares the hell out of him. But, while he feels his very soul is bleeding out from this mild hopelessness, he remembers that he is still a Marine, whether he enjoys it or not. He still has a ship full of others who, while he might disagree with them, sometimes fiercely, he will still stand on the line for them.

I... Hope this makes sense? Do feel free to ask for clarification.

XVvC wrote:[rant]

Xeria started out as a white-suited helpful and optimistic Quarian to be honest, most people forget the fact that the "SYAS" black-envirosuit was the second one to be used.

Over the time, admins of MERP1 deployed their OP characters that were only used to fuck around with other players for the sake of enjoyment.
As that, I changed Xeria aswell, trying to match up to them and defend the players who up until that point were left on their own.

A few series of demotions, bans and temporary kills later it was still a struggle.
A Quarian who stood up for other people and died for them, a story that is common but was never intended, it was developed.

Today Xeria is a reflection of what she was back then.
Pessimistic, low-expectation, narcissistic, demanding Quarian stepping out of the standard line in pursuit of being part of the history books.
So far nobody has addressed why she wears a Prothean shard necklace or has the extranet search history filled with topics about Asari and their biotic units.

The event that changed the character ICly completely was "Tinkle, Tailor, Soldier Slaver" during which Xeria was leading the front-line fight aginst the slaves who took colony of New Canton, and despite being shot several times and kept on lifesupport forever after the event, Urdnot Kurr was given all the praise and decorated for his heroic act of sitting back and waiting.

So if you ever look at me and think I am shady, striving for goals which are impossible by lore, stepping out of my ranks...
Just remember...
5 Years ago we had a whole community of people like that which took their turns talking to Reapers ( http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/903240950720289906/8A5CDFB0B45DCD0533C009B612C4BB6B8180537C/ ) and licking Prothean Relics ( http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/903241775312684892/77AF3299D0322F1CAF75C3334C0303C1B026E71F/ ) and I was the only one who was not allowed to do such and was punished for back-talking the old SA staff about their self-righteous decisions.

[/rant]

That's...something I never knew about you.  But please forgive, I was only prominently active in MERP since Singularity v1.0, and believe you me, I had plenty of issues with that server alone.  *exasperated sigh*  Some things never seem to change, unfortunately...

I was at least there for the prothean-licking part of it.  XD  Do you remember scaring the piss outta Celia that one time in the tunnels?

Do you think you'll ever go back to Xeria's first iteration?  The one where she was helpful and caring?  Pre-Kurr incident, basically.  Do you even want to?  Or maybe you see Xeria as continuing down her pessimistic path, which, granted, usually doesn't make for very fun characters to interact with as pessimists usually don't say much or constantly say derogatory things.

Hank Handsome wrote:I started my character Luma roughly half way through merp1. She was created as I started to get bored of my slightly op Asari. The plan was I wanted to make a less op character and focus more on personality. The character started rather basic. Trying to get on with everyone. However I changed that. As she got more praise she got more cocky. When this happened she started to question superiors. Then argue from time to time. Most notably a radio argument with commander alcae. However when alcae snapped back and nearly executed her she shrunk back down. Becoming far mote shy as she blindly followed orders. The character had started to regain her confidence. Which with the appearance of custom textures. Notably Xeria and Piano who have both helped me create and mount a texture. Left me with a darker look to the char. She took on the more edgy appearance she had now. Which in turn changed her to the slightly hot headed character I play now. She maintains the shyness but keeps the cocky behaviour in combat. Rarely arguing with superiors anymore. Besides the her vs major cape incident. Nowadays luma tends to take little seriously until she's actually in danger. (wrote this on top of a mountain. Plus 1 edgy.)

Do you think you've changed Luma for the better?  And no, I don't mean better for her in-character.  I mean better for her as a character--has making her more edgy given her more personality, more ways to interact with other characters?  Has it extended the platform she stands on which feeds her personality, or has it maybe made it harder to interact with others?  What do you think?

Advent MEC wrote:Elliott Foster was originally meant to be an opposite for my first character; Ryley Tyrell, who got shot in the lung for his first mission and got carted off for treatment. Whereas Ryley was a nineteen year old who was pretty much afraid and anxious of everything for several reasons, Elliott is a pretty arrogant son of a bitch when it comes to danger, is the biggest adrenaline junkie I think I've ever played but he's also a chill dude who enjoys making friends and socializing with those that he's working with. He's also my first attempt at taking a backstory that people would find edgy and making the character a bit of a curve ball to throw them off and prove them completely wrong. Some good folk can come from bad places, after all... Even if they did enjoy the fuck out of what they did.

Though let's be honest, Elliott's now my main character and I love playing him because of the way I've made him.

Oh, and I still strive to be able to roleplay with myself; on a Halo RP I think I hold the crowning achievement of leading an ODST squad made of NPCs, giving them personalities and using /it for their actions for about three days straight, with Pundii and Pinkie as my witness.

I have no life.

Hey, true to life. What's that quote...? Something like, the saddest people smile the brightest because they don't want others to feel what they have felt.

“I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anyone else to feel like that.”
~ Robin Williams

Yeah, that's kind of the one, um...

“The loneliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do.”
~Anon

There it is! That's the one I'm thinking of! But, yeah. Would you say Elliot's an embodiment of these quotes? Do you think they even describe him well? XD

Kravis wrote:Uriel defiantly takes after a few traits of Thane's. He's as religious as Thane is, if not more than he is already but the memory sequences that Uriel experiences are more depressing/tragic than Thane's memories of his assassinations. At one point I debated on him being a former priest however I didn't think it would of suit the environment that we're in now.

How do you think integrating the former priest thing would have affected him if you'd chosen to do that?

Bulaven wrote:While I have only recently started on the server, I think I can sum Elliot up in a pseudo-simple way...

I normally write very intellectual characters. Individuals with experience to a degree, brains, and a very deep-seated psychological problem for each of them, likely planted within the floorboards of their psyche.

Elliot Edward Bellfray was an experiment in his own right, being the first character I had even -Made- on this server. But he was meant to be something -Wholly- different. You could call him my first attempt at a walking tragedy waiting to happen.

While most of my previous works were with characters who had some sort of major incident influence the way they think and proceed with life.. Death of a family member, contraction or fear of contracting a disease.. Different ideological beliefs... Flat-out racism against other species...

Elliot is, and was meant to be, one of the few souls on the London who really, -Really- did not want to be there. He never quite wanted to be a Marine, either. He did it on a whim, and somehow made it through his training, and was sent to the Joint Task Force as a possible death sentence by his former Lieutenant on Watson. He has no combat experience. Has never killed another being of any sort. He is the first character I have written who is genuinely, inescapably vulnerable in his current situation. Most of the others have had some sort of fall-back.. A mental defensive mechanism. Elliot, meanwhile, is the unwilling, sent by the unskilled, to do the unknown for the uncaring. He knows this, and he is terrified. He has his moments of clarity, having been through emergency medical training, and likes to think he has himself well in hand.. And, don't get it wrong, he is capable of doing what he must. Tell him to guard a hall, he will guard it. Tell him to retrieve a fallen ally and, despite his reservations about their species (Being a Terra Firma voter), he will grab them. But, like a Federal soldier at the First Battle of Bull Run, he has no idea what he's getting into.

I'd say that's enough to get him antsy, huh?

Going deeper, his tendency to lean towards Terra Firma is a secondary defensive mechanism... Fear, filtered into political debates..

A final summary of Elliot could be... A being who, unlike most, feels that he has no control over his life. And this scares the hell out of him. But, while he feels his very soul is bleeding out from this mild hopelessness, he remembers that he is still a Marine, whether he enjoys it or not. He still has a ship full of others who, while he might disagree with them, sometimes fiercely, he will still stand on the line for them.

I... Hope this makes sense? Do feel free to ask for clarification.

"Elliot, meanwhile, is the unwilling, sent by the unskilled, to do the unknown for the uncaring."

That is, hands-down, my favorite line out of your whole post.

Since Elliot was an experiment, is he something you'd be willing to do again? Basically, have you enjoyed playing as him enough to warrant possibly making a second character from the same premise?

In terms of Luma's personality she remains less edgy. Her appearance is however clearly more dark. The character as a whole mainly just makes jokes onboard. The edgy'ness works to some extent as mainly its nice to have a char that remains slightly different. I still believe she's rather approachable in the server despite her hit head personality. All in all it seems to work. Quarians nearly always look edgy. They're armored aliens that wear a full face mask and a hood. It's mainly just the darker colours that stand out and luckily they work with the task force colour code.

Vil originally started out because 'lol turians are cool'. The end.











I lied about the end.

He's since then become an elderly, quick witted troll. Mostly, his age was because I felt it might be interesting to play him at that age, able to justify much of his knowledge and actions due to the pile of experience and wisdom behind him.

As for him and Reylds, although me and Crystal had shipped previous younger versions of the two, it's been interesting this time around as instead of being at the start of a relationship, they're in a lengthy (for salarians) one, so there's more subtle bits to it.

I have tried some other less successful things with him, including one rp where  I found out I'm terrible at medrp, putting Vil back into the position of generic spy/macmillan knockoff yet again.

There's not much in the way of themes though with him so I'll just move on to Druss!


To repost from a similar topic i made on CDN:

The character plays on the somewhat cyberpunk idea of a person being obsolete, only in this case it’s not due to technology or anything like that but by being biologically outclassed by other species in combat. A krogan can be a great warrior, as that’s what they’re often good at, but they can also choose to be great in many other things. For Druss however, she’d be totally outclassed by several other species through nobody’s fault, unlike in cyberpunk settings where it’s a megacorporation or just human progress, here it’s just a roll of the evolutionary dice. It leaves the character in an interesting spot as her inability to achieve her dreams is, if not blocked by, at the very least made exponentially harder by the situation fate has put them in. In a way this could be what leads to her outbursts at other species, seeing how ‘fate’ has gifted them with abilities more suited to their goals and desires, and, seeing her own shortcomings and having no place to point the finger at, she takes her rage out on others around her.

One of the other themes Druss is meant to explore, or at least try to explore, is how people become accepting of extremist ideas. The first half of this has been easy enough, simply giving her some crazy/racist/messed up views on certain topics. The other half has been arguably trickier but so far it seems to have played off in some cases in prior RP communities she’s been played in. Specifically, having some of the points she brings up to support her views be valid to an extent, or correct if seen from a certain perspective. A good example of this would be her lovely relations with quarians, most of which is simply just ‘rah our cultures are significantly different in a few ways’ however she has brought up a difficult to counter point from time to time, i.e. no significant positive contribution to galactic society. Although I’ve found it’s usually best to keep the ratio to notably more illogical points than logical ones, in order to avoid appearing ‘preachy’ OOC.

Next up is alienation, and here is where things get rather meta, in the sense that it kind of flips IC and OOC in a weird ‘timey wimey’ way. Largely in how species population numbers would seem to be skewed in Mass Effect Roleplays, due to a number of factors affecting which species players tend to pick. This did stem from the hated of quarians personality trait back when the character was still being molded, although it soon expanded to basically include most of the common species picks for MERPs. Not per se that Druss has hatred towards all of them, but rather both she feels alienated by, and alienates ‘them’. On CDN at least, this is mostly due to her being rather new to the galactic community at large, not having left Irune for any point before that, having perhaps grown up being fed xenophobic/isolationist views, or on a less serious note, perhaps she saw alien tourists in pressure suits fumbling about and got her worldview on them from that.

Romance! Yes, because it seemed like a funny idea at first three years ago, back when Druss first asked someone at a bar ‘*hssk* So where can I find some p***y around here?’ and things kind of snowballed from there. Back then, that version of Druss wasn’t a racist by any means, and was actually quite the xenophile, a trait that’s carried over to the current iteration of the character, since I think a bit of hypocrisy can always add a little believability to a character. Some of you may have noticed Druss’ penchant for hopping onto any thread involving romance, generally with some unkind words towards most posting, specifically, appearances vs personality. This is where I’ve run into some difficulty as of late as the version of the character where this trait started had a much kinder personality by comparison, and currently Druss is, both ugly in appearance and personality, so redeeming factors here have become far and few between for the character.

___________________________________________

Although the singularity version of Druss has a few major changes, most notably her far calmer (mostly) demeanor. This is due to her now having an alignment of sorts! Before, Druss fell somewhere into the 'bad guy' end of the alignment spectrum. she still does now, but the only difference is she's attempting to be lawful good. The recent incident with the geth shows how she's self-righteous about some core ideas (i.e. geth/AI are a danger to the volus) and believes that actions that may be evil are good. Basically she's a bad guy that wants to be one of the good guys.

How do you think integrating the former priest thing would have affected him if you'd chosen to do that?

For starters. I don't think he would of been much of a combatant. He'd probably be on of the deckhands on the ship who counsels to troubled crew members seeking guidance. He would of been a very spiritual person and would be in charge of holding funeral services for crewmembers who died during missions. I decided that, with the playerbase we had, it wouldn't of turned out very favorable and would of been mostly ignored.

Without a single doubt in my mind, I would write another. The development is like dropping a lump of iron into a fire. See it heat up... And see if it will cool down in a different shape, left an impression by the heat, or burn them down to cinders.. Reduced to a hollow shell.

here's an effective summary of voai, nadine, alicia and luke.

Brayton always serves a white blood cell; he'll either you eat you alive or protect you from stupid shit.

Brayton wrote:Brayton always serves a white blood cell; he'll either you eat you alive or protect you from stupid shit.

Wait, but I thought Brayton was the stupid shit?

(btw don't worry I'll get to responding sometime later this week or next week too much going on right now job interviews and shit OIFHDSAOFHASDKFJSA)

Arglack is a Krogan.

just kidding i will type more soon

Filtershakes wrote:Vil originally started out because 'lol turians are cool'. The end.











I lied about the end.

He's since then become an elderly, quick witted troll. Mostly, his age was because I felt it might be interesting to play him at that age, able to justify much of his knowledge and actions due to the pile of experience and wisdom behind him.

As for him and Reylds, although me and Crystal had shipped previous younger versions of the two, it's been interesting this time around as instead of being at the start of a relationship, they're in a lengthy (for salarians) one, so there's more subtle bits to it.

I have tried some other less successful things with him, including one rp where  I found out I'm terrible at medrp, putting Vil back into the position of generic spy/macmillan knockoff yet again.

Sp'aking of Reylds, he's actually got about as much development as Vil. Maybe slightly more, but not much.

I..don't know what his original intention was. I don't think I even have one for him. He was created in an RP with Drobitussin (Isadore) and that's a huge factor in what influenced his development. You see, he was created as one of those one-time spin-off characters, meant to be used and discarded when his purpose in the RP was complete. He and Tei Urstarth share this trait to a T. I ended up liking him a bit too much and decided to keep him around. |D

The sexual aspect of his character, you can blame Isadore for, as sexual relations were a part of his first-ever RP; I kept it because I thought playing a deviant would be fun and so far it has been. Vil's and Filtershakes's encouragement has not helped matters.

Reylds is, for me, EXTREMELY tricky to play. Never mind not having his personality nailed down as well as Celia's, but he flaunts traits that I just don't have. Sometimes he may seem awkward or stupid, but that's not how he's intended to come off--he's supposed to be more confident and soft-spoken, with a hint of sarcasm and playfulness. It's why he speaks at a slow rate; he's used to interacting with other species and just finds it easier and more convenient to slow himself down rather than be frustrated at the other for not speeding up. It also allows him more time to think of responses and what his next action will be, because his brain activity does not slow down, just his mouth does.

He's also supposed to be a wise old former ship COMMANDER, which by itself is hard to play. I, having neither experience in the military nor being a leader of any significant stature, am constantly studying other people in my life and other characters and taking cues from them as to how Reylds is supposed to act. Characters I try to follow are Dex's Isaiah/Ib, who seem unwilling to take up the mantle of leadership but do it anyway out of necessity; Satan's Shultz, who seems to be a natural-born leader in his own right; Humper's Octis Kurius, who always leads his squads without internal incident; Filtershakes's Vil, who takes control of the social situation and turns it on its head just to fuck with you.

In short, Reylds is a frustrating character for me because he is something I simply am not. But when I play him right, it is oh-so-satisfying to watch the pieces fall into place and the worms squirm beneath his tread~

Filtershakes wrote:There's not much in the way of themes though with him so I'll just move on to Druss!


To repost from a similar topic i made on CDN:

The character plays on the somewhat cyberpunk idea of a person being obsolete, only in this case it’s not due to technology or anything like that but by being biologically outclassed by other species in combat. A krogan can be a great warrior, as that’s what they’re often good at, but they can also choose to be great in many other things. For Druss however, she’d be totally outclassed by several other species through nobody’s fault, unlike in cyberpunk settings where it’s a megacorporation or just human progress, here it’s just a roll of the evolutionary dice. It leaves the character in an interesting spot as her inability to achieve her dreams is, if not blocked by, at the very least made exponentially harder by the situation fate has put them in. In a way this could be what leads to her outbursts at other species, seeing how ‘fate’ has gifted them with abilities more suited to their goals and desires, and, seeing her own shortcomings and having no place to point the finger at, she takes her rage out on others around her.

One of the other themes Druss is meant to explore, or at least try to explore, is how people become accepting of extremist ideas. The first half of this has been easy enough, simply giving her some crazy/racist/messed up views on certain topics. The other half has been arguably trickier but so far it seems to have played off in some cases in prior RP communities she’s been played in. Specifically, having some of the points she brings up to support her views be valid to an extent, or correct if seen from a certain perspective. A good example of this would be her lovely relations with quarians, most of which is simply just ‘rah our cultures are significantly different in a few ways’ however she has brought up a difficult to counter point from time to time, i.e. no significant positive contribution to galactic society. Although I’ve found it’s usually best to keep the ratio to notably more illogical points than logical ones, in order to avoid appearing ‘preachy’ OOC.

Next up is alienation, and here is where things get rather meta, in the sense that it kind of flips IC and OOC in a weird ‘timey wimey’ way. Largely in how species population numbers would seem to be skewed in Mass Effect Roleplays, due to a number of factors affecting which species players tend to pick. This did stem from the hated of quarians personality trait back when the character was still being molded, although it soon expanded to basically include most of the common species picks for MERPs. Not per se that Druss has hatred towards all of them, but rather both she feels alienated by, and alienates ‘them’. On CDN at least, this is mostly due to her being rather new to the galactic community at large, not having left Irune for any point before that, having perhaps grown up being fed xenophobic/isolationist views, or on a less serious note, perhaps she saw alien tourists in pressure suits fumbling about and got her worldview on them from that.

Romance! Yes, because it seemed like a funny idea at first three years ago, back when Druss first asked someone at a bar ‘*hssk* So where can I find some p***y around here?’ and things kind of snowballed from there. Back then, that version of Druss wasn’t a racist by any means, and was actually quite the xenophile, a trait that’s carried over to the current iteration of the character, since I think a bit of hypocrisy can always add a little believability to a character. Some of you may have noticed Druss’ penchant for hopping onto any thread involving romance, generally with some unkind words towards most posting, specifically, appearances vs personality. This is where I’ve run into some difficulty as of late as the version of the character where this trait started had a much kinder personality by comparison, and currently Druss is, both ugly in appearance and personality, so redeeming factors here have become far and few between for the character.

___________________________________________

Although the singularity version of Druss has a few major changes, most notably her far calmer (mostly) demeanor. This is due to her now having an alignment of sorts! Before, Druss fell somewhere into the 'bad guy' end of the alignment spectrum. she still does now, but the only difference is she's attempting to be lawful good. The recent incident with the geth shows how she's self-righteous about some core ideas (i.e. geth/AI are a danger to the volus) and believes that actions that may be evil are good. Basically she's a bad guy that wants to be one of the good guys.

Well jeez, just outshine me at this why don't ya. XD But I like this, this is awesome and gives a lot of insight into Druss's character and why she acts the way she acts.

You and I have discussed Druss at length before, so apologies in advance if I touch on stuff we already talked about. XD It's almost impossible not to feel bad for Druss when you explain her like this. If I remember right, what first inspired you to make a volus was the fact that not a soul around you made volus characters at all. It seems like that fed a lot into your talk of making the drussbus "obsolete" and in all aspects inferior to everything around her. Most people don't want to play an inferior species, though. I love salarians because they are portrayed as being infinitely smarter than other species around them. Did you just feel particularly daring or are you a masochist or what? XD

How hard is it to come up with wrong views? You seem to be just so snappy about it. Have you just played Druss long enough to know what she'd say in response to other characters? Are other characters just that predictable that you can have preset responses? |D

Kasxcy how did you ever fall for this ball of volus hatred? I will never understand.

virtualFear wrote:

here's an effective summary of voai, nadine, alicia and luke.

You're gonna have to explain a bit more than that. This is supposed to be a discussion, after all...

RxgReptile wrote:Arglack is a Krogan.

just kidding i will type more soon

Please do. Arglack is one of the character's I'd love to know about. .3.

Bib went from being a meme to a character of peculiar depth. How the fuck did that happen?

I can't exactly explain Brayton because I try my damnedest to leave his character, his morale code and his emotions under five layers of jokes, lies, anger, sadness and subterfuge.

I guess the best explanation would be why I originally created him, as a refutation against players who complain about humans being boring. Overtime it grew out into a the archetype most people seem to enjoy until it turns on them.

Honestly? It's a bit hard for me to explain Arglack, I created him back at Lunar Nature, first off because, the Krogan are simply my favorite race on the whole Mass Effect series, their nature and their story just gave me -alot- of ideas, that's where Arglack came in, my objective was to not create your everyday stereotype Krogan, sure, Arglack can still be a violent and Brutal Krogan, but why should he be like that everytime?

I grew attached to my own character, I dont know if that is a good thing but, i personally do not care, what i really love about doing him, is the character development, how he started off as a Krogan in a bad mood, then growing attached to other subjects, being friendly and such. His insanity breakdowns that happens sometimes (His PTSD after his incident with his brother) is exactly what i said about him still being able to become those stereotype Krogan, violent and harsh, BUT that is where his backstory comes in, which, if i type it in here, that will take me ages, so i'll leave that for people to figure it out IC.

Please dont beat me up if this is bad, i'm a bit sleepy, still, i'm writing that.

Like I said, i dont really know how to talk about him, its complex, theres alot on his backstory and person, if i had to write EVERYTHING about Arglack in here, i am going to need some time

I came up with the idea of Flynn while drunk off of Death Grips songs. I could guess that the rather depressing outlook of the band inspired me somewaht. Otherwise, it just served for earcandy.

Flynn is an isolationist, having been treated like shit, he treats everyone else the same. Realizing it was his own willpower and "survival of the fittest" mindset, he treats everyone else who has the opposite of his mindset to be weak and/or unfit for duty, which is why he looks down on a majority of the crew. He believes the crew should become stoic and/or robotic for the benefit of the task force.

Flynn is harsh, because he believes the world can be just as harsh. If you're emotional, he believes you should not sign up for the military. He believes there is a definite point in people's train of though that would seperate them from being a civilian or a soldier.

Due to this I can assume he's seen as some sort of pariah, seeing as he's got a polar opposite mindset than everyone else, believing in no nonsense, and completely disregards typical morality.

I pretty much came up with Milerrus by listening to the upbeat yet somber tone of Hollywood Undead - This Love, This Hate. For me, it symbolizes her strong beliefs in being an overall good person and guiding people to 'the light' (aka the 'good' in them) of their actions before eventually passing away, despite her 103 years of life left. A few lines of the song, such as 'as my coffin opens I look down', also symbolizes her religious strength despite not showing it. I also semi-based her actions off of the 'moral code' or proverb of 'in the end, only selflessness will prevail'. etc /endrant