Characters in media that influence/are similar to your character!

[Orlog]

The thread is more about characters that either influenced your character or ended up unintentionally similar. In the long run, this helps people get a generally better feel with your character right from the get go. (Or... that's the hope, anyway)

 

Anyway, to answer my own thread, I hadn't really had many direct character influences when I was making Bea, but when I started playing around on Borderlands 2 again, I found that Patricia Tannis is eerily similar in behaviors, minus some of the violence and being prone to outburst. Bea, though it might not seem it at first, is very much a lady of science, and very much disconnected with the world.

 

And... that's all that I could come up with at the moment. I'm currently wracking my brain trying to find any other characters that might be similar, but no luck so far! I'll be sure to update this post if I come across any others.

[Nox]

Oh, how I wish there were a simple answer for this. I have so many influences that I tweak here and there to make my characters that it's difficult to pin-point one or two. Because of that, I also find an extreme amount of trouble in finding a character that is similar. X'sato is like so many characters, yet different in so many ways. I suppose, if I had to choose one character that he was the most like off the top of my head, I might be stuck with... hm...

 

Jin-Ho Myung, the protagonist of Unbalance x Unbalance (its a manwha, and a fantastic read). They're both driven to accomplish their goals, both are awkward at times, both face the challenge of questioning their direction, and both fight tooth and nail for what they believe in. I know that list is kind of a cop out because its extremely vague, but drawing comparisons is not my strong suit. Their personalities are similar, but not too much. Maybe just enough to say "similar".

[Shuck]

If Captain Ahab and Captain Nemo had some kind of weird English/Indian clone-baby together, and Nemo's line were to suddenly lose all their money, you would get something really, really close to Isaac Jacobi.

 

Admittedly, he'd be more like his latter dad than his former, but there's a kind of heedless, obsessive, borderline maniacal drive behind him that speaks pretty strongly of what I took away from Moby Dick. Really, it's all in the symbology. Without giving a ton away, the titular white whale is often times thought to symbolize god, fate, blah, blah blah (basically, the inevitable, or a force of nature that is inherently careless and/or destructive), and there's a busted dude who'll give absolutely anything (and that means anything) to spite it, harm it, and hopefully kill it.

 

On the other hand, we've got Nemo. I mean, I can't really say much more than that link I provided does, so in the interest of space, we'll just leave it here.

[Maeve]

Maeve has been influenced by some characters, just bits taken from here and there really. They are:

 

Her positive personality traits and also her willingness to sacrifice and make those tough decisions - Moiraine Damodred from Wheel of Time

 

Her darker side - Morgan (Eva Green) from Camelot

 

 

and a mixture of things from my most beloved actress Lara Pulver, when she portrays Isabella Thorton in the BBC's Robin Hood:

[Asyria]

Azyria being a vigilante, I could name a ton of characters that are valid inspirations, but I guess mostly Cybersix (though I like to compare with Batman cause it's funnier). Much like her, Azyria isn't all that infaillible, and leads a pretty modest normal life otherwise (as opposed to that of a millionaire).

 

Jeanette draws a bit of inspiration from Lulu in FF X. She's tall and likes to dress in black and she does black magic (but possibly arcanist if I end up liking it).

 

My roegadyn and hyur were really made up on the fly, though you could possibly draw a parallel between Agata and She-Hulk because they're both green and strong, but that's about it, or Fiona from Shrek because they're both green-skinned with red hair but that's it. It's not like I really thought about either of them when I created her. o_o

[Zyrusticae]

Sadly, my characters are built the way they are specifically because of a lack of characters of their particular archetype. I mean, how many hyperactive, yet pragmatic cute bruisers (with a dash of petite pride) are there in fiction, exactly?

(Hint: There are none)

 

Actually, pragmatism in general is rather in short supply these days, especially when it comes to female characters. This is something of a pet peeve of mine, even. The biggest example, female warriors - the practical thing to do is wear armor that deflects blows away from your vitals, to cut your hair short or tie it down well, and to train your body to the extent that you are much more of your weight in muscle than in fat. Yet how many female warriors exhibit any of these traits, much less all of them?

 

And then there are the personalities that are often written into these characters. Do they even have any? Heh. Heh-heh. The less said about that, the better.

 

Hence, characters like T'ranu are a product of my frustration with the way the media (and even other players) generally portray women who go into battle. However, at the same time, I will admit that some of it is simply an idealization of myself (her hair, skin, and eye color are exactly the same as mine).

 

I suppose I should mention characters that do have an influence on mine, to some extent. Here goes:

People are still confused about her gender to this day.

 

Total. Badass.

 

Yes, I am aware a scarf of that length isn't very practical in combat.

 

I didn't even know she was a girl until Internet happened.

 

I gather you're picking up on the pattern by now?

 

I think that'll do for now. I would have mentioned female Commander Shepherd, but, well, her character is more an accident of design than an intentional one (as is evidenced by that ridiculous poll they did for her appearance on Facebook). The writers even admit to this, saying that male Shepherd was the default and female Shepherd merely defaulted to masculine mannerisms because of it (rather than being an intentional direction for her design). So yeah, pretty much all of my examples come from Japan (even Noodle - she comes from Japan in-universe, lol).

[Grott]

Uther is heavily inspired by a few characters. Most notably is a young King Arthur. He's tough, he's fair, and he holds himself to his own standards. Aragorn also played a big part in the character's personality, as someone who is an experienced exile kind of hiding in plain sight. Also, a lot of inspiration was taken from the story of Ivanhoe, the disinherited knight. I threw in a little Robin Hood, as well, for spunk and personality, despite his strong moral code. I also took some notes from a few well-written Superman origin stories, in posing the question "How do I fit into this world?" because, while Uther is still from Eorzea, Ishgard is in a state of extreme isolation.

[Grott]

 Captain Nemo 

 

YES!

 

"The greatest treasures of all, Mister Land, are a sound mind and a full belly. I hope you remember that before stooping to pick up pennies."

 

 

One of the most underrated characters in fiction. Completely destroyed by The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Aronnax states that he can't pinpoint Nemo's place of origin, hypothesizing that he could be from the Mediterranean regions, the Middle East, or India... yet in the aforementioned comic, as well as the movie, he might as well be Apu from the Simpsons. He's got a beard, a turban, and statues of Hindu gods everywhere. Completely ruined by cheap stereotyping. (I know, I know. He has a long beard in The Mysterious Island)

 

That was a bit of a rant, but yeah, Nemo is easily one of my favorite fictional characters. I tried to make a lalafell and a miqo'te based on Nemo before I joined the RPC, but both were really boring and I ended up with Uther. I applaud you for succeeding where I failed. And you get bonus points for mixing Captain Nemo with Lovecraftian influences in your writing.

 

And for the record, just to get my daily bragging out of the way, I definitely said "Your character reminds me of Captain Nemo" a few months ago, before you ever mentioned Nemo.

[Dogberry]

I've said in other threads that Dogberry has a similarity to Marv from the Sin City comics. He's not nearly as chauvanistic and socially ignorant as Marv is, but at his core, he is a very big man with a very violent nature and a tendency toward emotional confusion. Like Marv, Dogberry finds it easy to get emotionally invested.

 

Dogberry also resembles Brock Sampson when his over the top machismo conflicts which some of the not-so-macho things he does. While watching The Venture Brothers, I became fascinated with the idea of a character who was basically the ideal macho man, yet would still do things like dress up in victorian garb and having a tea party just to humor someone he cared about. He either isn't aware of this clash, or if he is, he doesn't care.

[Valan]

I nerver Rp with this version of Sarah so i will speak about the "archetype Sarah"

 

Her physical appareance and her clothing style are inspired mainly from Jo from the anime "Burst Angel"

 

Because her first incarnation is as genderbending of a emotionally suppressed character I give her a opposite behavior and combat style from her male counterpart. The result was a violent, mocking woman with a predilection for unfair combat, her firearm (usually a shotgun) and a quite perverted lesbian attitude (but in ARR I will try to overcome it).

 

I think the main influences to Sarah come from:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Manari]

The character that I drew the most overall inspiration from in an SNK character that originated from the original Samurai Shodown.  Her name is Nakoruru, she is a priestess of the Ainu people, and a guardian and protector of nature.  She fights those who harm nature with a kodachi (a dagger), her hawk companion, and a large wolf.  Nakoruru is the reason I wanted Manari to be close to nature, and also love animals.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manari and Nakoruru now share a similarity that I never even intended, and it's just an awesome coincidence at this point.  Nakoruru is a gentle soul, sweet and kind.  There are times when keeping the balance of nature requires killing.  Sometimes it's a rabid or feral beast that is out of control, or sometimes it's a person.  In either case, Nakoruru's kind heart is sometimes unable to take life.  In the Samurai Shodown series, there is another Nakoruru.  She is normally wearing purple and has a darker expression on her face.  Eventually in the later games she got her own name, separate from Nakoruru.  Her name is Rera, and she is the one who appears when it's time to take the life of another.  The series is fairly vague on her exact origin.  Is she some facet of Nakoruru's personality?  A split personality perhaps?  Is she a vengeful Ainu spirit?  Either way, she takes the lives that Nakoruru can't.  I have sort of given manari a moral struggle with taking lives in ARR, there isn't really a split personality, but she does put on a mask when she has to hunt people at night, and she believes just as the masks hide you from Woodsin, her mask will hide her from the sins she commits as she takes the lives of those she believes are threats to the healing of the Twelveswood.  

 

Here is the darker side of Nakoruru.  She's not evil at all, she's just willing to kill.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second part is kind of a crazy revelation I just had.  Perhaps I was further inspired by Nakoruru on a more subconscious level or something.

[Eva]

Eva has been drawn upon a number of different influences - often just specific facets of other characters kind of melded together to make something a little different.

 

Inspirations so far have included (but are not limited to) the following:

 

Kes from ST:Voyager (admittedly her namesake)

Deanna Troi from ST:TNG

Egwene from the WoT series (and probably by some extention Moiraine whom I know was mentioned earlier)

Winnie the Pooh (yes, really)

Juliet Burke from Lost

Elim Garak from ST:DS9 (not just cuz he's a tailor either)

 

There are others, but the melding of that sort of "deep simplicity" with "empathy" with "coy secretiveness" sort of all mesh together to make Eva who she is. If that makes sense.

[allgivenover]

In the case of Rakka'li Kuhn, the character that comes to mind first as the most similar would be Zidane Tribal from Final Fantasy IX.

 

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120804151622/finalfantasy/images/2/21/Yoshitaka_Amano_Zidane_FFIX.png[/img]

 

They have a lot in common; a friendly, easy-going personality, a reputation for skirt-chasing, and a tendency towards unabashed confidence that can come off as arrogance - a facade that also serves as a cover for a few insecurities. The well known trope the Loveable Rogue adequately describes both of them, though Li only resorts to stealing when he absolutely has too. He also shares with Zidane his tendency to hide his own problems, and not seek help when he really needs it. 

 

He does differ from Zidane in a few ways. A trope that describes Li in a way that he isn't like Zidane would be the Ethical Slut. Li also has a pragmatic side to him, and can occasionally act selfishly. Intellectually he is very bright, but his crude mannerisms and poor education totally obscure that facet of his personality. Given the right opportunities, power, and influence he has in him the potential to become a Byronic Hero, though it's just as likely that RP could keep him from that path.

[Naunet]

It's really fun to see what folk are taking inspiration from.  Tranu, I really like the character concept you're working with (and not just because I think it's good to play with gender identity in literature).

Regarding Antimony... I'm honestly not sure. Her base is a character I came up with a long time ago for a Forsaken in WoW. I wanted her to be just... a person, an average woman who, in the case of the WoW universe, did some terrible things to her family when she turned from the plague but was otherwise normal. A bit prudish, extremely stubborn, intellectual but never actually trained to be so. She's a woman who leans towards traditional "female" ideas and roles, while simultaneously defying them in her intellectual ambition. Sometimes in her incarnations, she is a full-blown scientist (as she is in TERA); sometimes she's just a simple accountant with more high-minded hobbies than one would presume of someone of her nature.

 

But in all my years roleplaying her, I don't think I've ever thought "Anti reminds me of ____." I guess I'll just leave that up to other people to decide. Because hell, I'm lazy!

[Avarel]

At first, I was planning on a sort of brainwashed child soldier a la Soma Pieries from Gundam 00 for my 'defected Garlean soldier' type character, but I'm in the process of recreating her, and what I'm brainstorming is looking to be a lot more spirited, a lot less blank-slate. One of the most fun characters I've done in the past was a rogue-type who was magically cursed with the inability to lie a la Wheel of Time's premier 'magic-user' institution except not voluntary, and that was incredibly successful; I think what I should be looking for in terms of inspiration from popular fiction media is not a character concept, but a character weakness around which to build.

[Fluffysmartass]

Koba is meant to be that a cool and collect character. When I make Koba's personality I mostly think of Shizuo from Durarara!! Crossing out the temper and strength, they'd be pretty similar. 

Shizuo is mostly quiet and calm. Kind of gets into other peoples business unintentionally. Hes straight forward when he talks and is looked up to a bit.

[Gideon Aryeh]

"I'm not a thief I'm a Treasure Hunter!" - Locke Cole FFVI

Totally ripped "Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire" from this guy

 

This guy and his soundtrack especially. Yes the music definitely had an influence along with the gambling aspect of Setzer.

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Add in a dash of this guy for that slice of life aspect that this version of Amaare has

 

 

And finish it off with my man here

[Elkabong419]

You know, it took me quite a while to to peg down how I wanted to make Night Rain. I admit, I do love taking different character perks from other characters in media and toss them into a blender and.. Viola! There is my character. For Night Rain, I used Doctor Alan Grant (Jurassic Park), Doctor Daniel Jackson (Stargate), and Doctor King Shultz (Django Unchained)

[Xenedra]

"I just try to be really, really honest with people when I think that they suck."

 

Yup, Santana Lopez from Glee. She sings, she dances, she thinks she's tough shit and gives no fucks. She sluts about without shame and speaks her mind when people do things she thinks are stupid... And she goes above and beyond to protect her friends, even if they don't realize it or understand her unorthodox methods. Generally Xenedra is not actually as bitchy as Santana unless she's angry, but the high emotional walls and attitude are definitely there.

 

Alternatively! Denna from the Kingkiller Chronicles. Many names, unclear past, uses her charm to her advantage. Once again musical, confident and insists on hiding her sensitive side.

http://kkc.wikia.com/wiki/Denna

[Renaise]

For Renaise it's pretty much a patchwork of these guys.

 

 

[Martiallais]

This is an awesome thread and I really like all the great answers! Keep em coming!

 

When I originally started brainstorming Zarek, it was a tossup on if he'd become a Dragoon or a Paladin. I gathered that since it's a Final Fantasy game, there'd be plenty of both (no offense to those playing them of course!) and wanted to do something to stand out a little more, which led me to pugilist. After all, how many people want to be the one fighting a monster with skill and (mostly) bare hands alone? The answer is more folks than I thought but I digress.

 

My initial concept drew on the kind of 'so crazy it just might work' mixed with 'stupid good luck' from Gene Starwind with some 'too charming for his own good'-ness of Gambit thrown in. But, no matter how fun that mashup was in my head, I couldn't see the interactions with other players going well as the character's 'voice' wasn't one that I was overly fond of. That and I couldn't quite nail down a Highlander look that I wanted, since I'd kind of visualized him conceptually as similar to Abel of Street Fighter 4 fame.

 

A bit of video searching and research on pugilists, monks, and the Platinum Mirage later (thanks to both Gospel and Merri for fielding questions on this!) and I'd kind of gone with a character that drew some from both Mugen (Samurai Champloo, for unpredictability and a bit of crazy) and Spike Spiegal (Cowboy Bebop, an almost lanky guy who is able to both dish out and take a beating) for fighting style and some tidbits of typical mood/attitude. For the fighting 'style' he was learning from his mother, I took a bit of the visual concepts of both Fire and Airbenders (heavily leaning towards air, which added to his name) and nudged in a little here and there from Rock Lee (Naruto).

[sugarfrosted]

Dogberry also resembles Brock Sampson when his over the top machismo conflicts which some of the not-so-macho things he does. While watching The Venture Brothers, I became fascinated with the idea of a character who was basically the ideal macho man, yet would still do things like dress up in victorian garb and having a tea party just to humor someone he cared about. He either isn't aware of this clash, or if he is, he doesn't care.

 

That's so cool that you reference the Venture Bros. Just felt like saying that, anyways...

 

I think Borosolo Nasolo may be more like this guy:

 

Lazy, lackadaisical, and out of shape. There may be other influences but right now that was the first that came to mind.

[ArmachiA]

Loki Aethertide

 

~ Herself

 

 

 

(THAT is a scan of a print out of a drawing I did on MSpaint like 10 years ago. OLD SCHOOL.)

 

Loki in FFXIV is a version of my original character "Loki" from a table top game that me and Ellion made called "Unizen" (He did all the system, I did all the story). The game is about how humans evolved in a different universe after Earth poofed out of existence. Loki's race was one of nomads that didn't live on planets and instead settled on "Satellite Cities" (Cities made on asteroids) or just flew around on ships. They tended to be scavengers or pirates and tended to have lots of prosthetic limbs due to the volatile nature of their lives. Her race also had nicknames that they used to outsiders and "True names" they used with their clan and people they were close to. Loki's nickname was obviously Loki - named by her father's best friend who was into the study of mythology. She was created about 10 years or so ago and I was perfectly fine with using the name till the Avengers movie came out . Now it's SHAMEFUL.

 

What I took from her is her name (And the fact it's a nickname, Loki is not her real name in FFXIV either and was given to her when the Crimson Blades - our old guild - handed out nicknames. We said it was because she was "Low Key" BA DUM CHA), the fact she has a fake leg, and her pirate-y lifestyle also came from U-Loki. U-Loki is almost like Loki in FFXIV - Flirty, A finder of trouble, a LOVER of trouble, Logical, etc etc. The differences are U-Loki has rage issues and is a racist (against other Unizen races), while FFXIV Loki has neither of these. I didn't think the rage translated over to FFXIV very well and I was worried how people OOCly would react to a racist, so I took them out. There's also a lot of differences between the two that come from roleplaying them in two different universes with two different sets of people that I can't really explain, but as roleplayers yourself you probably get it.

 

~ Armachia Mirandette - Armachia was a character I rolled when I was 17 (That was a long time ago) for Vampire: The Masquerade (Which I'm still a big fan of). Armachia was the villian of our RP group, she was a stereotype femme fatal, and a loud, annoying snotty brat who wanted everything her way all the time. Loki and her have nothing in common, but without Armachia existing, Loki would have not existed. So thanks, Armachia. (Armachia will get brought up again later)

 

~ Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop)

 

 

 

 

Look, I like to pretend my character is "100% original do not steal" but the fact is, once I watched Cowboy Bebop is was really, really hard to not be influenced by it and Faye has influenced a lot of my character creation since I saw her for the first time back in 2001. Faye had a lot of influence on Loki in particular, being the kind of girl who has a love/hate relationship with trouble. I really liked that about Faye and outright stole it. None of my characters previous to Faye have had such a relationship with trouble, they were either good or they were bad. Loki is a bad good girl, and I got that from her.

 

~Vala Mal'Doran (Star Gate: SG-1)

 

 

 

(There's no getting off this Sci-Fi train folks, I am a HUGE fan of the genre)

 

Loki was created before Vala ever became a regular on SG-1, but I still took some influence from her when smoothing her out, mostly her snark and her flirtatious nature. I also took her version 2.0 look from her (The picture above is her 1.0 look and it... just awful) though later I found a more fitting "face" for Loki. I love Vala so much, when Loki didn't work in SW:TOR I used the name "Mahla Veredon" as an homage.

 

Armi Alliando

 

~ Yuna (Final Fantasy X)

 

 

 

 

Back when I played FFX, I thought that Yuna was just the epitome of self-sacrificing good girl. As I have never played one of those in RP before (Most of my characters were Loki-types or flat out crazy because they were Malkavians) when I was rolling my character for FFXI I decided to give one a try. Armi was born. She took pretty much everything from Yuna in that incarnation - quiet, studious, sweet, big ol' Martyr complex -- she even had a love story with a Tidus type (Accidental but still funny). I had no experience with someone who was just that GOOD, so in later incarnations I tried to "dirty" her up a bit. Still, she keeps the self sacrificing part of her TO THIS DAY. She will give her life to rescue another, be it from evil or from themselves.

 

Because of this side of her, Armi is my character voted most likely to get into a relationship haha.

 

~ Herself

 

 

 

 

Like I said above, Armi was first rolled in FFXI. I explained how she was there, but over time she evolved... honestly I'm still working out her kinks. Because I feel she isn't perfect in any game I roll her in, I keep rolling her to see if I can get her right. Sort of like RP Reincarnation. The game she is perfect in, she'll probably stay in. That's kind of made Armi synonymous with ME though and people have just ended up calling me Armi as a nickname, regardless of who I play as my main. I'll just go down the list and what I took from her from each game.

• World of Warcraft: Armi was a Blood Elf who was against Kael'thas Sunstrider before it was revealed he was actually evil and not awesome like all the Blood Elves thought. Armi was a diplomat of sorts and worked closely with the Draenei, eventually falling in love with one of them. She was funny and outgoing - very different from her FFXI persona - and strongwilled. I took the funny, smiley part of her from this version. I actually think this version was closest to perfect, but she had lost the Self Sacrificing side of her here and I didn't like that.
  
• Aion: I kept the nice, classy side of her and added the witty side to her, then added BACK the Martyr Complex to this incarnation. Problem was, every character in Aion was basically a Mary Sue by default (It was canon you were immortal, one of the "chosen", had huge angel wings, had a special title no one else had but you, and were stated as being demi-gods) so being "Self sacrificing" meant very little. To get around this, I made Armi hate her status as a demi god and try to go out and kill herself every time she was in battle - which she was A LOT since I PvPed all the time. If she was injured, she intentionally didn't heal herself, as some kind of reminder she was once human. This worked... with varying degrees of success. The witty, sweet side of her ended up romancing a Daeva named Siben, and the weird dark side of her had her romance a one named Lloire. Honestly I felt like the Suicidal part of her started to take over her whole personality a fair bit so when I got hacked I just quit the game. lol.
  
• SW:TOR: I kind of liked the fact Armi was darker in Aion, but didn't want to go down the suicidal thing again, so in TOR I made her a Dark Sided Jedi. She was a good person who didn't believe in the Jedi code, but was completely against the Sith. BUT because the Jedi code leaves little for people like her, the Jedi branded her as dark sided and kept trying to get her back to the fold to "get her back to the light." Armi worked closely with the Republic and was generally a good person, but because of that one thing (Not being a Jedi, really) she was considered almost a villain in the game. Many a character tried to preach how evil she was and how dark sided she was for not following the Jedi code, meanwhile she was helping the Republic as much as they were in regards to getting rid of the Sith.
  

 

In FFXIV I went back to before Aion a bit, Armi is hopeful and jubilant, smart and witty, kind and sincere, though she isn't looking to kill herself for a greater cause (Anymore *ahem*) she still has that self sacrificing nature of wanting to save people, even if it risks herself. She wants everything to be okay and wants to push people to be okay. BUT, taking from Aion and SW:TOR, as a former priestess of Nymeia she's angry at what happened with the Calamity. She can't justify what happened there as "The Gods' Will" and her entire belief system is spiraling away from her, deep down inside she's as lost and confused as those she wants to help. I think I may have gotten the right mix of Light and Dark in this incarnation... we'll have to see though.

 

~Armachia

 

It's where her name came from. I needed a name real fast and my ex-husband suggested Armachia... I thought it sounded harsh for the type of character I wanted and shortened it to Armi.

 

~~~~~

 

Is this enough words? I'm not sure it is.

[ForestGuardian]

[align=center][/align]

 

 

Hyltwakka (Only representation of him I have so far. :<) Not 100% on these, but they kind of fit.

 

 

 

 

 

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Tohru from Jackie Chan Adventures. xP 

 

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Rubeus Hagrid from Harry Potter. 

 

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Snorlax? Yes-... Snorlax. 

[K'tahrl]

A lot of my influences for K'tahrl's personality stem from the first anime I watched growing up so it'd be these two as the most in likeness/inspiration for his design.

 

Gene Starwind

 

Vash

http://i.imgur.com/DEPHJ.jpg[/img]

 

There's still a lot of kinks I'm working out with him but for the most part a combination of both personality types would fit K'tahrl the closest.