Just make as realistic a character as you can. Don't be one of those people whose characters have 'flaws' like "He's too nice!", "He's just so powerful it's hard" blahblahblah, crap like that. My starting point when making a character is to get a general idea of what I want them to be. I wanted Koen to be an older soldier who'd been absent for a long time, since I'd come back from a break and didn't know the lore, and I didn't want him to be anything special, just reasonably skilled with what he does.
From there, you have to look at their starting point and do a lot of research. See how the environment they grew up in would have shaped their personality. Koen was raised in Ala Mhigo not too long after the Garleans had become a major threat, so naturally he would've had anti-Garlemald prejudices beaten into him from a young age. His parents were both military, so he'd aim to be the same and look up to them, and would also see discipline and respect as the highest virtues to have.
Things like that are how you start to form your character's values, and if you want to change them you can bring things in. I wanted Koen to be less strict with his values and not be a harsh military type, so I wrote into his backstory that he had two children, and lost one. The loss wasn't just to give him a tragic past, it was to make him appreciate his one child more, and it humanised him. So I managed to shift him from a super militaristic soldier to a skilled soldier who has a soft spot for kids and is kinder than he otherwise would've been.
Apologies if none of this makes sense, but that's how I try to make an interesting, or at least realistic, character.
tl;dr: Do a bunch of research into what it would've been like for them as they progressed through their life, and don't add anything for the sake of it being there. :^)
From there, you have to look at their starting point and do a lot of research. See how the environment they grew up in would have shaped their personality. Koen was raised in Ala Mhigo not too long after the Garleans had become a major threat, so naturally he would've had anti-Garlemald prejudices beaten into him from a young age. His parents were both military, so he'd aim to be the same and look up to them, and would also see discipline and respect as the highest virtues to have.
Things like that are how you start to form your character's values, and if you want to change them you can bring things in. I wanted Koen to be less strict with his values and not be a harsh military type, so I wrote into his backstory that he had two children, and lost one. The loss wasn't just to give him a tragic past, it was to make him appreciate his one child more, and it humanised him. So I managed to shift him from a super militaristic soldier to a skilled soldier who has a soft spot for kids and is kinder than he otherwise would've been.
Apologies if none of this makes sense, but that's how I try to make an interesting, or at least realistic, character.
tl;dr: Do a bunch of research into what it would've been like for them as they progressed through their life, and don't add anything for the sake of it being there. :^)
![[Image: koensig.png]](https://s18.postimg.org/qygc4odeh/koensig.png)
