(06-24-2013, 03:15 PM)Beatric Reid Wrote: This topic was brought up in the race selection thread, and I actually got a few people commenting on how my mentality of being a rough bitch visually is refreshing to see. But, this kind of confused me, because I personally feel that it shouldn't be that foreign of a concept. Pretty characters in a rough world just come off as very unrealistic to me. Especially in a game that has you going out into the wilderness, fighting monsters that're larger than life and at times even killing people to survive.
As I had mentioned in this other thread, I'm not saying that attractive people shouldn't exist. But, looking fresh faced and bug eyed just doesn't seem to fit the world, unless they're absolutely new to the world of doing any kind of work. Plus, the character models within the game are pretty attractive from the get go; I see no need to add on to that.
So, what are your thoughts on it?
I haven't read any posts on this thread yet except this one, but I'll get back to you all once I do if I have anything to add. I have to agree completely. I'm all about being realistic and dirty with my character. I even go so far as to make my character seem like he's fallen from grace and had a rough few years. Uther Skystrider comes from a knightly background. He was trained in the ways of combat and court from an early age, but he's mostly dropped the latter and become a dirty, wandering, brawler with a spear. I even wrote a description of his appearance to practice my writing before I jump into fan fiction. I looked at this picture for reference.
I'm re-writng it here, but it was essentially:
"The man stood with the posture of one who came from nobility, though the charm and grace had dissipated years ago. His face was scarred from battle, burned from the sun, and covered in dirt. The hair on his head was equally unkempt. Strands of brown fell from his head to just above his chin. The man made little effort to keep it out of his face, aside from a lazy middle part. The hair on the back of his head was ignored all-together and ran wild in tangled knots and gravity defying strands. His armor, which at one point looked heroic and neat, was now an extension of his filth. The jerkin was dotted with holes and blood stains, while the mail itself was missing links and seemingly falling apart. On the top left corner of the leather chest piece, half covered by tattered off-white cloth, was a sequence of torn stitching from a long since removed heraldic badge. In it's place was a sloppily painted and faded picture of an uprooted tree: the symbol of a knight who had been disinherited."
Not my best writing by far, but you can see what I'm getting at.
EDIT: As far as personality is concerned, Uther isn't a "dark character" or amoral/immoral by any means, but he definitely keeps it real. He was raised fighting dragons and thus has no illusions about the nature of combat. He's a good man and an earnest man, but that doesn't make him clean and pretty and friendly. There's also a sense of pent up rage from his own exile and the death of his wife six years earlier, but as a respectable warrior he's learned to keep his own emotional problems in check. In short, he's real. He doesn't sit around and focus solely on his past like many one-dimensional characters do, but it's still there. And he doesn't dick around when it comes to battle. He knows exactly what type of world he lives in, and while he tries to be as valiant and chivalrous as he can, it's not always an option. Sometimes you have to take the messier road.
