Describe your character without referring to appearance, profession(s), or origin

[Nero]

I feel the need to preface this with a statement: it is absolutely within the rights of all involved to write their character however they want. This thread is not meant to contain any sort of e-peen wagging or "I'm a better writer nya nya". This is intended as a tool for those who are interested in adding additional facets to their character, and nothing more.

 

This is a deceptively simply writing challenge that is useful for highlighting the prominent features of a character's personality while also accentuating any excessive reliance on superficial details and exposing any wild inconsistencies that may have gone unnoticed. After all, the core of a character is their character--that is to say, their traits, their personality, their beliefs and morality, how they react, and so on. Having a strong core is essential to making the other elements of your character compelling. 

 

In other words, this exercise is about adding--or expanding upon--your character's level of depth and dimension.

 

Like the title says, describe your character as extensively as you can without referring to what they look like, what they do or did (both in combat and a profession), or where they came from. For a further challenge, do not refer to their reputation, their family or friends, or their historical background. Keep the focus solely on your character in the present day.

 

Essentially, pretend you have a friend, and that friend don't know anything about nothing about Final Fantasy, basic fantasy elements, or anything at all of the sort, and is also critically allergic to explanations to the subject. Now tell them about your character.

 

Here are a few basic guideline questions in case you are confused on how to start. 

 

• How does your character react to someone new? (Shy vs. Grandiose, Cold vs. Friendly, Polite vs. Uncouth, etc.)
  
• How does your character react to having their beliefs challenged? (Stubborn convictions vs. open mindedness, skepticism vs. faith, etc.)
  
• What does your character value, and why? (Money because it represents power, family because they hate feeling lonely, excitement because they are inspired by adventure, etc.)
  
• What is the general life's goal of your character? Why? (Seeking a purpose in life because they've never fit in, protecting loved ones because family means everything to them, exploring the world to see new sights, making money, just living day by day because they don't think too much about their motivations or the long term, becoming famous, any combination of the above, etc. Do not refer to their goals or motivations with professions, locations, or explicit historical background.)
  
• How does your character deal with things they do not like? (Avoidance vs. Belligerence, passive aggression vs. direct confrontation, sarcasm vs. silence, etc.)
   
  

[Hammersmith]

Imagine a ball of still molten lead swirling in an obsidian sphere.  

 

It's looking for an excuse to break open.  The when and the where isn't important anymore.  It's been solid too long and it knows one day that the fire will go out and the entire thing will congeal into a mass that will no longer be capable of moving and that few will have the strength to budge.

 

It's been alive too long. It wants to share that core of swirling hate, that whirling white hot fury inside itself, with everyone else with absolutely no regard for the damage that will cause most things.

 

That's Hammersmith.

 

Don't stand in arm's reach of him.

[Warren Castille]

Warren is someone who tries to be a good person, but continually finds himself questioning how that's possible in the world and climate he lives in. It's a cliched instance of weighing morality and what precisely makes someone "good," and how sometimes bad things feel necessary in order to continue doing good. Can good people do bad things and be forgiven for it? Do the ends justify the means?

[ArmachiA]

Armi is someone forever trying to reconcile who she is with who she wants to be. A strong person who has no idea that she's strong, and someone who wants to get close to people while buried behind thousands of walls. She believes, in essence, she's a ghost in her own time, living some kind of half-life. However, she hides all of this behind a goofy and upbeat nature, those who never get behind the wall would never know about her crippling insecurity and she rarely, if ever, talks about herself. To most people, Armi is kind of weird, kind of goofy, and kind of shy, hard to dislike and even harder not to tease. But behind the goofiness, behind the fact she doesn't get jokes or doesn't understand what flirting is, behind the smiles and her genuine nature, lies someone who believes they aren't a whole, living person yet. And she isn't sure she'll ever be one.

[Darien Cadell]

Qhora is sullen and angry. When she's not sullen, she's angry. When she's not angry, she's sullen. Most often, she's both.

 

When she laughs, which is rarely, it's usually in schadenfreude or appreciation thereof. At best, she maintains a quiet watchfulness or professional courtesy, but she does not stray into the realm of friendliness.

 

She seems stubborn about everything but actually has a fragile side that she keeps mostly to herself. She claims to value solitude and hedonism, but she's so thoroughly ensconced in the lies she tells herself that she is very close to believing them despite the fiction.

 

When confronted with things she doesn't like - which is often, though perhaps not as perpetually as she believes - she prefers drastic avoidance, followed by venom and rage pent up and taken out later, either in lonesome raving that would make passing strangers assume lunacy if they could hear her or in making someone else's life miserable via a sort of latent aggression redirected onto a completely unrelated target.

 

Many edits. More difficult than I thought at first.

[Aya]

Describing Aya without, "Blonde"?  Then again, I would claim that is as much a state of mind as a description

 

I may give this a try tomorrow!

[Zyrusticae]

T'rahnu is a thoroughly rambunctious, happy-go-lucky individual... at least on the surface. She has hefty internal resentment boiling inside of her that would take a very special individual to unearth. She feels she has an insurmountable debt that needs to be repaid, and refuses to let herself off until it is (re: never).

 

She tends to be overly touchy-feely and doesn't respect the personal space of others, happily wrapping her arms around complete strangers if she feels like it (which is especially true of big, burly men, whom she tends to treat like oversized teddy bears). She's incredibly, perhaps even absurdly warm to everyone around her, including her enemies. Insulting her will only get you compliments on your vocabulary in return. This can make her either completely hateful or your best friend, depending on how you interpret this. Even if someone presents a major threat to her, she will never stop being irreverent. (She will, however, get the heck out of dodge as soon as it becomes apparent that the situation is not in her favor.)

 

She has pretty much no shame at all. If someone ever sees her naked body she makes no effort to cover herself up - just the opposite, in fact, as she is full of pride for her good genes and training. Traditional standards of feminine beauty have zero hold on her, and she does not make any effort to please those who do not appreciate her for what she is.

 

She can be infuriatingly snarky at times, but this is not out of hostility, but rather simply an effort to poke fun at every situation no matter how inappropriate. She is not the type of person you want to invite to any formal events, though she can be bribed to at least keep quiet over the duration. For her, personal enjoyment is simply at the top of her priority queue, everything else be damned. Of course, sometimes this does mean that doing her usual shtick would just ruin her fun, so in these situations she does keep her hands to herself.

 

T'rahnu does not have any particular goal in mind. She focuses mostly on improving her (already considerable) martial prowess and having fun. Oddly enough, doing just this has taken her pretty far in life, but much of it can, again, be attributed to her good genes and training and not any great personal effort on her part. Her idea of 'having fun' unfortunately includes messing with things she should not have any hand in, as well as indiscriminate promiscuity. She can handily be described as the type of person to live hard and die young - though when she does bite it, it likely won't be at the hands of another.

 

Her strategy with regards to the few things she really cannot stand is pretty simple: stay away. Keep a safe distance. Fortunately, her list of such things is pretty small, and largely consists of things any reasonable individual would consider unsafe. She's not reckless - just daring.

 

Despite all of this, she can actually be pretty helpful at times. She's surprisingly competent at many different tasks, and she works as great moral and emotional support. Somehow, her own inner turmoil prevents her from looking down on anyone else, even if she can't quite understand the situation they're in. People down in the dumps just isn't fun for anyone, after all, so why shouldn't she try to improve the situation, however she can?

[Cliodhna Eoghan]

cliodhna is the type of girl that can seemingly fit into nearly every situation. though she does love to have fun (and i mean fun, when it time to work; she gets serious and professional amazingly quick. as of now she's currently not with many goals in her life aside from just taking life one day at a time, acquiring money (isn't everyone?) and enjoying the time with her significant other. otherwise, she's content in her current position in life and slowly realizing it's okay to be "happy and normal". like most people, there is some past emotional issues but she's locked those down and away for the most part. if the thought regarding them start to surface; she banishes them quickly before dwelling on them rather than thinking about them and talking of these issues are out of the question save for with a very very small number of people.

 

at first glance, she's usually open and friendly to a point; never one to shy away from someone just wanting to strike up a conversation (unless she's in a rush, of course) and will quickly introduce herself and carry on the conversation....mostly due to her being curious, clio likes to ask a lot of questions when meeting new people. nothing odd however, more mundane things such as "what brought you out this way? what sort of work do you to do for a living? any hobbies" that sort of thing. typically she gives her full name when being introduced but will not oppose if it's shortened in most cases now, a pet peeve she's learning to accept. other things that bother her however, is usually meant with mild annoyance or she'll choose to ignore it if it's something minor. bigger issues and her she will get angry, but again, that takes awhile as most things are only a minor annoyance because she feels giving into anger is a sign of emotional weakness and beneath her (same goes for crying. good luck trying to make her cry, double if it's in public)

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I'm just gonna use a quote someone left as a rumor. It um...it's perfect.

 

"Franz is a monster...a horrible man who pretends to be something he is not. He gives with one hand, and terribly takes with the other. A friend, and a demon with the same smile."

[Desu Nee]

Quki is a free spirit by all senses. Traditions, common sense, and beliefs hold little meaning to her, as well as her beliefs and trust on people are based on their character, not what they are or where they're from. She's naive, yet pragmatic at the same time, in her ever lasting quest for power and knowledge to set herself a meaning to her friends, family and herself.

 

She's kind as she's insensitve. She's passionate as she's detached. She's polite as she's a complete pervert.

 

She's Quki.

[Nebbs]

Playful as the lapping waves at your feet.

Depths that reach to a bottomless abyss.

Unpredictable in nature always shifting.

The collection of a million tears.

The joy of the far horizon.

 

She is the sea, Nebula.

[Melkire]

Taking my cue from Hammersmith.

 

Imagine a large cavernous chamber. One half of this chamber is well-lit, and it is filled with people of all sorts and kinds and races and ages and walks of life. In the well-lit section, you can find almost every amenity imaginable. Comfortable sofas, tables, bookshelves filled with texts and novels on just about every subject and topic, toys, entertainment centers, TVs, DVD players, movies, video games, a kitchen complete with every piece of china and silverware you could ever need, a refrigerator that provides all the water you'd ever need for drinking, an oven, a sink and dishwasher, beds aplenty for folks to sleep and fornicate on, heaters, air conditioners.....

 

...but there's no food.

 

The other half of the large cavernous chamber is dark. Pitch-black, almost. From deep within that void, on occasion, can be heard chilling noises, the cries and screams and grunts and panting of wild animals. Beasts... but beasts that keep to the shadows.

 

In the middle of the chamber, in the grey that marks the divide between light and dark, white and black, is a small coffee table. On that coffee table is a single large hunting knife. Outside of the rather tame cutlery and the wooden chairs and other various amenities that might make for makeshift weapons, this knife is the only real, pre-existing purpose-built weapon in the entire chamber.

 

Melkire is the man that picks up that knife every day and delves into pitch-black darkness, risking his life, in order to come back out with food, so that the people in the well-lit half of the chamber might live one more day without turning on each other and cannibalizing their own population in a chaotic frenzy born of desperation.

 

And he does this of his own free will, volition, whatever you want to call it.

 

Not because it needs doing. That's the excuse he gives the others.

 

Because he likes it.

[D'aito Kuji]

RE: Describe your character without referring to appearance, profession(s), or origin

 

D'aito Kuji has long harbored a thirst for adventure, a desire to see what lies beyond the horizon.  With a quick wit, a sharp tongue, and a cantankerous spirit, she is more than capable of living in a land where the rule of law could be several days travel away.  A mildly sardonic sense of humor can help put others at ease and boost her own spirits.  While quick to anger at times, D'aito can also be patient and kind.  Her usual manner would seem to most to be relatively laid back but with an air of competency.  Her confidence in herself is rarely shaken, even when she makes mistakes.

 

Some might say that D'aito isn't especially intelligent, and there may be some truth to that.  She has a tendency to bore easily, especially when confronted with complex ideas or situations.  However, thinking her to be a simpleton might be a mistake for she is clever and her instincts often reward her.  D'aito is amenable to training and is quick to learn new things.  She also possesses a strong sense of duty and will do what it takes to fulfill that duty or appease her sense of honor.

 

Unlike many, D'aito strives to live a moral life, keeping to the scripture and traditions of her people and culture.  This can be a challenge in her adopted home as the diversity of it's people mean a mixing and blending of ideas and traditions, sometimes resulting in the watering down of ideals that D'aito feels strongly about. She maintains ideas about marriage and family that some might find to be too out of date or close-minded.  D'aito reacts to this by keeping a lot of her ideas to herself and consulting other followers of Azeyma when necessary.

 

---

 

I think I might be able to go on forever so I'll stop now.

[Verad]

"It is a common observation, that objects which in the reality would shock, are in tragical, and such like representations, the source of a very high species of pleasure. This taken as a fact, has been the cause of much reasoning. The satisfaction has been commonly attributed, first, to the comfort we receive in considering that so melancholy a story is no more than a fiction; and next, to the contemplation of our own freedom from the evils which we see represented."

 

-Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry Into The Origin Of Our Ideas Of The Sublime and the Beautiful, "Sympathy"

[OttoVann]

Lots of money. Flagrant womanizer and drugfiend.

[111]

Imagine an anthill.

 

Imagine someone poking that anthill.

 

 

Imagine Evangeline feeling sorry for the ants going, "Clearly these ants should live in a place that cannot be poked."

 

Imagine Evangeline constructing a new anthill, a better anthill. One of stone and steel, high walls and deep caverns, orderly hallways and wide chambers.

 

Imagining those ants not being interested in moving.

 

Imagine Evangeline kicking over the anthill.

[Gegenji]

Chachan is a young foreigner trying to make it "big" in a new land, following somewhat in his older brother's footsteps. However, rather than riches or power - what he seeks is to be a "hero." To help people and protect them from the bad guys and monsters that are undoubtedly out there. A dream originally wrought of childish naivety that was tempered into something more by the various events in his life. The loss of his home, the near loss of close friends, the poor conditions he sees the less fortunate in every day.

 

For, if nothing else, Chachan is an overly empathic sort. He's at his happiest when those around him are happy - and he seeks to make them so, since few things can upset him more than seeing them upset. He often takes their troubles unto himself along with his own, leading to build-ups of frustration that he does his best to internalize if he cannot solve the underlying causes. He's honest and blatant in his concern for others, with a will and desire to help that seems to be able to weather any burden.

 

He's the sunlight that pierces through the thunderstorm, a brief respite from the tumult.

 

He's a stubborn flower in a ruined building, stubbornly adding color in a place of desolation.

 

He's a sweet candy tinged with just a bit of bitter, sour flavor... and yet is all the better for it.

 

He is Chachan - and he is a friendly dork who wants to help you, no matter who you are.

[Harmonixer]

Imagine a room in which a somewhat sleek machine continuously presses out the same product over and over again. The room is bare, the process is almost soothing.

 

But is incredibly unsettling at the same time. It does not seem to have an on or off switch, it can be placed nearly anywhere else and yet it continues to provide its product without pausing.

 

When it runs out of materials. It simply waits. Poised to resume it's craft.

 

Is is undoubtedly functional, but no one wants to use it, even if they must eventually.

 

That is Yhur.

[Caspar]

A freakish existence, utterly apart from fortune and misfortune, to whom circumstances conspired to craft a mind and body at odds with the world. She's yet to realize this inner nature because to look inward for her is to break. Rather than a personality or a sense of self, she crafted a state of being propelled entirely by a simple desire, burning away all burdens and excess to actualize her one goal. It's not accurate to say she fears introspection; it's more like the state of a modern aircraft, made entirely of aerodynamically unstable surfaces, only kept from flying apart by advanced avionics and technology. The goal moves her and sustains her, so distractions gradually start to feel like threats. She entertains the idea of connecting with others, but ultimately she's apart from them in so many ways that it's likely a futile effort, because she only holds together just so physically, and just so emotionally, but that hair-thin binding is incredibly rigid and brittle. In a sense she's like a zealot of faith, wherein the law of her god defines every aspect of how she perceives the world. Force will define her reason because she was effectively born out of it, and relies upon it to maintain her sentience, or sanity rather. It's sort of like being born with only a concept of moving forward, like a shark which spends its life swimming continuously. If something causes a sensation she has to think dangerously hard about, she obliterates it, or bypasses it, never turning back. To do otherwise would induce a near-catastrophic feeling of self-betrayal, if she could recognize it for what it was anyway.

 

Emotions are sort of like indistinct fuel, a quantifiable non-physical resource. She 'feels' in various amounts, but doesn't fully distinguish between things such as love and hate except on a conceptual level, because her way of life is defined by ambiguous sentiments she was never trained to parse properly. Likewise, being a thinking person, to her, is a transitional state rather than something you're born with. If she stops doing what she's been doing, 'she' will no longer exist. If she was able to look inward for real, even for a split second, she could realize she has distinct emotions and a true sense of self, like a genuine person, but she truly believes she's already chasing the ideal image of what becoming "human" is, since before her transformation from 'animal' that only behaves instinctively to sentient being, urges defined her life, rather than conscious goals. To become a person rather than an animal, she cannot recognize the subconscious, where the old amoral urges are still rampant, and must focus entirely everything outside of the 'lizard brain,' or she will lose to it and sully everything she's build herself out of up until this point. She has varying success on this front. Her way of life is simple because it must be. She values force and power because she needs to in order to connect with the image of the ideal person she is trying to make herself into. Luckily for her, she can switch off when she does unpleasant things in the pursuit of that ideal.

 

Of course, she is thinning away the things that make her more than just a unidirectional force pushing unrelentingly towards a final destination, so she's actually achieving the opposite result. At the same time, those who are close to her pile on more distractions that erode that stubborn way of life. It is self evident that she will collapse or explode in one way or another when the force speeds up to its limit, becoming either a twisted wreck or a monster without feeling or reason.

[Roen]

Roen is a woman who is trying to prove that goodness and integrity are not lost in this world.

 

She has always been idealistic and staunchly believes in "doing the right thing" but she is learning that "what is right" can be vastly different depending on who you ask. And she herself is reevaluating her own answer now more than ever, her perspective has irreparably changed in the last year.

 

She has a stubborn streak and has held steadfast to her beliefs in morals and justice, more so when they were challenged, and yet those beliefs have been constantly tested in the last many months.

 

She has always defined herself as the sum of her convictions, and in her heart, this is what makes up her self worth. She will never admit this to anyone, but her ultimate goal in life is to prove her self worth, to live up to the ideals she firmly believes in.

 

Only... she has recently gone against those virtues and broken her own moral code. Where does that leave her now?

[SM Nick]

"Oka" is a girl of many wonders inside waiting to burst forth. She is a symbol of purity and optimism wanting to explore and adventure to new lands. She knows to adapt to other cultures and has a warm heart, showing no hostility to friends she makes. Although she is reserved when it comes to interactivity with Eorzeans, she is not afraid to talk and chat with them. She prefers not to talk about her personal stuff, as she is secretive about disclosure. She would go to unbound lengths to protect her new friends, and the actions and personality she has makes people think she is a different person, the opposite of the warm and happy Oka that they know. When the going gets rough, Oka knows how to get serious and cold, even going as far as killing people if it means protecting their friends, although she will at least try to find a non-violent solution first.

[OttoVann]

Drugs, money, hoes.

[shotgunbadger]

Zutoto is a knife.

 

Held one way a knife can cut vegetables, held another it can cut people.

 

A knife doesn't have to change at all to switch between those things, but using a knife for one more than the other will change it. It starts small, subtle, but the changes grow. A cooking knife dulls, a fighting knife chips and bends.

 

A knife used for both suffers both, and wears down faster.

 

If you ask a knife used for both, would it resent being worn down so much, or would it be happy to experience two different worlds at once when it thought it was destined for only one?

 

More importantly, if a knife was asked to change, could it? When it's had a taste of working as both, can it ever do just one task as well as it used to? A cooking knife can't cut as fast as others if it's been used in war, a fighter's blade can't cut as deep if it's used for culinary work. Yet, maybe what they lack in raw ability they make up for in experience and cunning, as they've been through far more trials and tribulations.

 

There's tradition around knives, pomp and circumstance that change depending who's using it, but the attitudes are the same between everyone. The knife is the extension of the body, of the soul. Without such an attitude the knife is just metal. If this is true, then who is she to deny the duality of her soul to her knives? Maybe if they both endure such stress, neither will break under it.