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How did you come up with your character? - Printable Version

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How did you come up with your character? - Yunas13 - 02-23-2014

Hello fellow RPers! Big Grin

I'm not sure if a topic has been made of this but I am so curious! I'm wanting to make an RP character who I can level 1-50 and who can help get my writer's side to kick in again. (I'm also working on a FFXIII/FFX crossover fanfiction, taking it slow and not rushing it.) Smile I'm trying to come up with a story but also not sticking with the game's story. I used to be so good at making different stories but I've gotten rusty and need a push!

So, my fellow RPers, how did you come up with your characters and their back story? Did you create them before you made them in the game or did they come to you as you created them or played them? I made a topic earlier asking about a back story but I think I was so clueless that I just put the basics and might have confused everyone. lol!

Thank you and can't wait to hear from you all! Laugh

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Lizzo - 02-23-2014

Since I am currently in a creative writing class this thread caught my attention instantly - especially since I LOVE LOVE LOVE creating characters (have roughly 100+ in my head over multiple IPs and some of my own).

Before the game launched I created probably 20 characters, major, secondary, tertiary, playable toons and characters simply to buff the playable's backstories.

This is the first character I came up with, sadly he did not make it into the game as I was not impressed with THM in beta:
http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Lizzo_Trange

In creating Lizzo I had a generalization of the character in my head for a few years (he's based roughly on a 'faceless' character from FFTA who was a BLM). His actual characterization has changed multiple times to fit whatever I wanted to try to fit him in and thankfully with 14's great lore (and also being a FF game with the option of being a BLM again) I was able to create a backstory that wove several aspects of his multiple versions from my head into one person. It allowed me to make him a minor noble, bring in the death of his father, go further with his family (sister, mother, brother, brother-in-law and nephew were given names and backstories of their own), friends were created based on shadowy figures I had in my head (specifically Crowe - another character who always with him in my head, and again sadly did not make it into the game) who was replaced with his daughter Sigyn, and a magic-based girl friend (Zali'ah).

I thoroughly enjoyed fleshing out this character, I loved watching his backstory spill out of my head and onto the screen over a few hours. Being able to make a visualization of him through the character creator also helped (though he didn't come out exactly how I wanted, even with the great amount of options in the CC).

Here's to you new character, and the hope that their creation is a fun and exciting time for you!

(Sigyn and Zali'ah did in fact make it into the game and have been 50 for a few months.)

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Erik Mynhier - 02-23-2014

Erik was at his core sourced from earlier versions from earlier mmos going back to Neverwinter Nights and good old D&D from back in the day (80's). The source is formed and I let it grow organically, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, from back in 1.0 forward to my unwise sub cancel all the way to the 2.0 beta, until now.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Jeantremont - 02-23-2014

I'm inspired by the lore of the game itself. Reading through quests gives you a basis, a setting, from which to build a character. For instance, at level 16ish you run onto a cult... So that led me to wonder what it would be like to play as a member of that cult. Or as a poacher, a pirate, a Garlean, etc.

Sometimes I create characters specifically FOR a guild I'd like to join. If I see a guild with a really unique concept, I'll want to create a character that could fit perfectly with that plot! Check out the linkshell hall and see if anything catches your eye.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Xydane - 02-23-2014

Xydane was created to be your typical hero. I wanted to RP the "good guy" and as I learned more of the game's lore, it was then that I used it as a basic layout into creating his back story. There is a reason behind everything he says and why he acts the way he does.

I wanted the average hero's story - one of lost, death, love, and hope. Though it took some time to plan and brainstorm, I eventually created what I wanted and from that point was I able to "add more" through via story writing and RPing.

Though the magic about RP is creating any type of character you want, I personally am more comfortable with creating a character in the side of justice and righteousness. Just like in World of Warcraft, for example, I created an orc warrior who's sense of honor, wisdom, and many life lessons help forged the definition of hope when the world is covered in darkness.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Aysun - 02-23-2014

I learned to RP in a place called Furcadia (don't judge me -_-), where the original anthropomorphic Aysun was inspired, visually, by:

Show Content


Cute. The rest of her personality I just sorta came up with as I went. Wasn't really based on anything in particular other than what I wanted to play, a spunky shorthaired girl. Anyway, I used the name in XI and didn't RP, but when I started XIV I had to RP! Her basic personality is similar to what she had in Furcadia. That's what I went into XIV with. Barebones personality. Didn't even have a backstory made up yet.

I chose the history I did for her because of my own ignorance about the lore of Eorzea. I wanted her to have a reason not to know many things about it, but not be foreign. So she was raise on a tradeship! I made up her "traditional" name and reason for not using it shortly after I started playing and realized that all Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te had the apostrophe thing going on. Personality-wise, everything just sort of comes together. Like ^they said about their character, there's a reason behind everything Aysun does as well. Even if it's the fact that she sometimes acts irrationally and does things without reason. Wink

She's changed quite a bit through RP over the last few years, needless to say, and I love that.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - FreelanceWizard - 02-23-2014

I actually took pretty much up to phase 4 beta to come up with my character. Smile I started from the mechanics I liked the best -- the Disciples of Magic -- and the lore I found most interesting, which was that of the miqo'te. From there, I came up with a character that could be influenced by, and have an opinion on, that particular culture but yet would also be a fairly free and open adventurer (albeit one with some pretty major personality flaws). The most important thing for me was to play in the boundaries of the lore while making a character that I found interesting and had room to grow.

After I had the concept roughed out, I did several of the prompts (100 Questions About Your Character, Your Boss Drop Table, What do you like to eat, etc.) to flesh her out in more detail. Of course, she's changed as she's been played and RPed. She retains some of her naivety, but she's also become a bit more hard-edged and violent. She's sort of drifting from "neutral good" to "chaotic good" in D&D terms, or from Scrupulous to Unprincipled in Palladium terms.

My recommendation is to start with a rough concept -- something you can summarize in a sentence or two -- and either flesh it out through RP, writing it up in the wiki, or going through some of those character prompts. The 100 Questions is especially useful, I think.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Edgar - 02-23-2014

Edgar came about early on during the beta for A Realm Reborn. At the time, I wasn't a member of the RPC community, and contrary to his official 2.0 toon, he began his existence as a Lancer.

He had nothing really special about him, at that time.

Then I joined a linkshell/FC called Aetherblade and began fleshing him out. I realized that I wanted Edgar to be a lot like myself, which included my flaws. He's talkative, he's very physical, he speaks in a dialect filled to the brim with words right out of the thesaurus and manages to impress and bewilder with this form of speech.

Like most of my "Personas", he inherited the fucked up right eye, which in real life is my colourblind eye. Many of my characters feature some sort of nod to this trait; One's eye rolls in its socket like googly eyes, another is an undead maid who has had the entire thing eye rot out into a gaping hole, another is a demon who's mouth stretches across where his right eye should be. And if the others are due to lose an eye at some point in my many writings, you can guess which one will be lost.

When he's not walking around acting like a more sophisticated me, Edgar is basically being most people's worst nightmare: a cat-like Miqo'te.

He refers to Miqo'te children as kittens, compares his species to Couerls, purrs, and has been reported hissing at someone who tugged his ear too hard.


To put it simply, Edgar is a fucking cat. You have a problem with this? Don't RP with me. I will laugh off your complaints and proceed to do nothing but purr until you accept Edgar for who he is as a character.


You have been warned. Tonberry


Finally, like myself, Edgar is effeminate. That is to say, he is bisexual, and possibly a bit of a transvestite. If this game allowed cross-dressing I swear to god I'd have Ed show up in the female version of Coliseum subligar.

To put it simply, Ed is fabulous-

[Image: partay.gif]

-He just doesn't get many opportunities to express himself. Not quite unlike myself. I live in Oklahoma, the belt-buckle of the Bible Belt, Christian Conservative central, and showing off your non-heterosexuality here is often followed by a horde of angry fundamentalists trying to preserve the sanctity of marriage that you are apparently trampling on by existing. 


But I digress. Edgar rarely speaks about his sexuality, but come the opportunity, he'd probably take it by the horns and ride it for miles. Interpret that as you will.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Rythulian - 02-23-2014

I RP a lot over on dreamwidth so I spend a lot of my time writing as a specific canon character. It gets a little tiring after a couple of years so it's nice to come up with a 'free' character to explore certain character aspects with.

I'd been in a bit of an OC rut for a while, having trouble with the visual lead to trouble with the narrative. I took a step back and put off OC building for awhile. Recently I was introduced to FFXIV, I want to say two months ago but I could be wrong, started going through the game on a different server and started to get inspired.

Eventually I decided to just take the plunge, set up a new character on balmung, work around the actual in-game lore and go from there. I've mostly got the personality down by this point, I can be indecisive on that at times, but i'm still working on the background part.
The personality itself is mostly built up around certain traits i've gotten used to over my many years of RPing. The background is going to be centred more around ideas that i've liked but never gotten around to playing.

Long story short. The game in general combined with the need for a little RP freedom ended up creating my character in a way.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Synn - 02-24-2014

Well creating Synn first started when i saw my brother playing phase three of the FFXIV beta. At first i thought "Cool a new MMO to try out." But thanks to a reddit post about the RPC and rp within the game I decided that I would like to try it out for that aspect of the game instead of just something to take up time doing nothing.
Before any serious decisions on who Synn would be I took a look at the setting of the game and started thinking "What would Synn do in this world?" , "How does he feel about X or Y?" , "Is he a good or bad guy?" Stuff like that. From there I decided that he would be a dark or anti-hero largely influenced by my most favored job in the Final fantasy series, the Dark knight. But alas Dark knights have yet to be implemented in the game yet so after a bit more research into the story of FFXIV I tweaked his back story so that it would fit.
At this point I had Synn's base, but he was still incomplete. Continuing to write out his back story I established his likes and dislikes, past and present, along with a goal that drives him forward. And the end result was a character much like myself irl but within a world very different with its own problems, problems that Synn would solve how I would solve them.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Sophia_Grave - 02-24-2014

No idea, honestly. Sophia is so far from the characters I usually RP as, but ironically she's shaping up to be one of my favorites. If I had to compare her to someone, I suppose she'd pass as a more feminine, lawful evil version of Riza Hawkeye from Full Metal Alchemist. As to what actually spurred me to create her, I guess boredom played a part. I wanted to do something different, so here she is.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - ArmachiA - 02-24-2014

I mostly just adapted characters I already had from previous games. So I'll just talk about that.

Armi was born in FFXI. I didn't have a name for her, and was going to use Armachia - which is the name of my Lasombra vampire from Vampire: THe Masquerade. I didn't really like the name for her though, since I felt it was too harsh for the kind of character I wanted and just shortened it to Armi.

Back then, the only kind of characters I ever played were sarcastic, mean, witty, femme fatale types and I wanted a change - so I rolled Armi to be nice and sweet and kind of shy. That's been carried throughout all the games I play with her - though her backstory and such always changes.

In FFXIV I took the 10 years of experience I had playing her in various games and wittled down what I liked about her and what I didn't. My plan with Armi and Loki was to compare and contrast the "Virgin and the Whore" trope of the bible. I thought it would be interesting to play two vastly different characters and explore those two things. Thus, Armi became the "Virgin"

Armi existed in 1.0 and back then I decided she was a Priestess of Nymeia who believed her own will was not her own, that her whole life belonged to fate. I did this because I thought the 12 God thing was interesting, but in 2.0 - after the Calamity - I wanted her to be angry at the Gods she once was so devout too and try to distance herself from them to find her own place. Because she entered the Priesthood so young - 12 - I made her awkward and shy; she just does not understand social queues and desperately wants friends. BUT to make her interesting and not a wallflower (Because I'm not really and I didn't want to get bored) I also made her eager, curious, (Unintentionally) funny, talkative - though with a tendency to ramble.

Loki, on the other side of the coin, became the "Whore." Loki is from a homebrew Table Top game from many many years ago and I always liked the character so I always bring her in when pirates can be a thing. Loki in the table top, is a space pirate only really because I like the fantasy of pirates (The reality... not so much) and built her around that. In FFXIV - she's an ex-pirate; her ship and crew were destroyed in the Calamity. I didn't this because I wanted to see her start from nothing, since I always give her an established pirating career. I gave her a fake leg and a scar over her eye in order to show the consequences of her lifestyle. I made her promiscuous and flirty, but sarcastic and snide. I have her entire romantic past mapped out. I also decided to make her an eventual Summoner, having come out of the five year skip with some weird Aether problems.

Neither character are really anything like me. I don't like playing me, I am me. It's no fun to me so I tend to make characters that are all over the map. I find I can slip into any character - evil, good, shy, outgoing, male, female - rather easily and like to challenge myself.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Elyscia - 02-24-2014

I have never RP'ed before (ever. This game is my very first exposure to RP), so starting up Elyscia was a toughie. 

Before Elyscia.. she was Punch Cat. Punch Cat. More alternatively named she was Shizei Ko, or 'Pun Chkat'. 

I was supposed to RP with my Canadian friend and we were both to be antagonists - flirtatious thieves, and she was going to be Roegadyn and call herself Punch Fish/Pun Chfish. It sounded pretty fun, but because of the full sever shenanigans I ended-up in Shiva (until free server transfers started). 
When I joined Balmung I decided to keep Shizei Ko who was boisterous, flirty, rude, but then I re-made her because I messed-up her tail and during it I thought "I love red hair and green eyes."

And made Elyscia Rose. I had trouble thinking up her surname though.... 

Re-rolled her personality at least three times. The more I thought about her background, the more I thought about how it'd affect her as a person.. so if X happened to her I don't think she'd show Y personality or moods: she was a lot more defiant and curious, then she turned child-like, exciteable, now she's all cautious and bitter.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - E'lario - 02-24-2014

When I make characters I usually like to start out with the very basics of their personality and history and then build around that with actual RP interactions. In other games I've RPed in I usually play the villain, so with FFXIV I wanted a more good/neutrally aligned character.

E'lario's basic personality started out as friendly, helpful and kind. He gets easily embarrassed, and often times will try to hide his true emotions under jokes. Through roleplaying he's become slightly more serious but still likes to make terrible puns, is a little bit of a klutz and gets overly excited about his research and will talk someone's ear off about crystals for hours.

Sometimes I miss the more villainous role, but I really like how E'lario has turned out. He's blast to play and most people I meet seem to find him adorably endearing.

RE: How did you come up with your character? - Roen - 02-24-2014

Roen was my favorite and most beloved character from the longest D&D campaign I've ever played in.  She was my first paladin, and what they say about your first D&D character being most like the player is completely true.  Roen was fifth and my last character I rolled, nothing like my first who was a flirtatious gypsy. 

Playing a paladin was completely out of my comfort zone for me.  Stepping into a shoes of a selfless do-gooder is not my thing.  Especially in D&D where you don't get to decide your character's fate!  You CAN DIE.  Lose everything.  So playing a character who will likely risk everything for a good cause, that was hard to swallow. My preference has always been flirtatious selfish characters with a vague moral compass.  That was my thing. Until Roen.

The D&D story that spanned over 5 years with the campaign, her growth, the loves, the hopes, the losses she experienced, and the sacrifice made at the end... I fell in love with the character.

So when the story and the campaign was finished, I did not want to let her go. So I created an alternate reality version of her in FFXIV, complete with her own unique FFXIV history.  At the heart, she is the same person.  I know her inside and out.  But the circumstances of her upbringing being completely different, I am having fun playing this "What if" scenario out in the game.