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| Xeogaming Forums - Story Realm - Characters |
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AlpoRaggins Troubadour Not so much dead.         Since: 12-11-04 From: Someday, Somewhere, Over the Rainbow Since last post: 6616 days Last activity: 6505 days |
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| This isn't a piece of literature, but it pertains to the topic of the forum. Every story has a character, of sorts. I was wondering what you guys on this board think about characters, like, what do you think makes a character interesting? Is there any specific sort of charcter that sparks your interested, anything they do or say? Any stereotypes you don't like? I wanna hear what some peers think about this sort of thing, and maybe about some of the characters you've created yourselves. | |||
Dark Vader Slime  Since: 10-21-04 From: Menzoberanzan Since last post: 7048 days Last activity: 7034 days |
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| What makes a good character for anything, sim-battles and novels included, is the way they act. A D&D character for example could be your basic Half-orc barbarian, not much interesting there. But if you make him afraid of bugs because he was attacked by a hive of bees or something when he was a kid, you start to develope a better character. Also, because of this he may act tough to make up for that fear and push other characters and NPC's around to get what he wants. And I used this as an example because D&D characters make great book characters. Drizzt Do'Urden is proof. (Last edited by Dark Vader on 06-17-05 05:23 PM) |
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable  Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 103 days Last activity: 103 days |
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| I have to second that. A character's background is what truly makes the character, attributes as well as flaws... especially the flaws. If you have a character that is perfect it gets boring real fast.
All my characters in Darkfang have their strengths, but they also have their flaws, and it's fighting those flaws alongside fighting the antagonist that makes the reader keep reading. Even Superman has a flaw to keep people interested. And yes, D&D characters make excellent literary protagonists, I'm going to have three of mine do that (Elara, Morwen, and Jade). All have their flaws and strengths, and great hooks as well. |
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AlpoRaggins Troubadour Not so much dead. Since: 12-11-04 From: Someday, Somewhere, Over the Rainbow Since last post: 6616 days Last activity: 6505 days |
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| The thing about some of my characters in the story I'm writing now is that they're backgrounds are sort of lost. Lately I've been trying to unfold them more, so I think its fair to say there's enough detail about they're present selves to indicate what happened to them in the past. Such as one character, he strives to be a brave man but has a fear of going beyond his boundaries, so he is only known locally as a hero. I suppose that's good enough, though that is only a very small synopsis of the guy. One of them is sort of a mystery, but in a way that it seems he could've been anything before what he is now, and the other is a very bleak man who's just bored. | |||
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Dark Vader Slime Since: 10-21-04 From: Menzoberanzan Since last post: 7048 days Last activity: 7034 days |
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| Yeah... I have a Drow paladin. He was raised by Dwarves and his best friend from childhood is a wood elf. He fights Flourintine, something that is not common among paladins and he follows Moradin. He has never been to the underdark, he was born on the surface. I don't like orthodox characters. (Last edited by Dark Vader on 06-23-05 06:44 PM) |
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 103 days Last activity: 103 days |
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| Wow, that is very unorthodox. Cool though.
I created the world that my fantasy novels are going to take place in, I'm still doing finishing touches on it really.. deities and such. I'll give the breakdown of the three characters: Elara Siannodel: Born to a somewhat wealthy Elven merchant family, she desired to become a ranger. When she was young her sister, brother-in-law, and newborn nephew were killed by Gnolls while she watched from her hiding place. Later her hometown was slaughtered by Orcs and burned to the ground because she had helped the Elven druid they held captive as their "princess" escape... she buried them all and killed the Orcs. Forced herself into social isolation until she discovered her brother was still alive. Helped him on a quest from the goddess Ostara, which resulted in her becoming one of the first Twilight Elves. Morwen Nailo: Born a crossbreed from a Drow male raping a Elven woman, she came out as a mix of the two subraces. Growing up on the surface and facing prejudice and hatred at every turn, Morwen's had to learn how to help others through her ranger ways while staying alive herself. Also determined to kill her father for raping her mother. Jade Shar: A Fey'ri raised by a Wild Elf druid, she learned the ways of the barbarian Elves. Her birth was marked by a total eclipse of the moon, but a purple halo shone around it... this was known as the Chaos Moon to the tribe and it disturbed them greatly. After being discovered and abducted by her own kind around the time she hit puberty, hidden powers start to emerge and soon it becomes apparent that Jade is chosen to ascend to godhood as the goddess of chaos, but first she must prove herself worthy. |
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Rauni Since: 08-14-04 Since last post: 1548 days Last activity: 1548 days |
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| While some D&D provide some characters, I saw ton of them from Fire Emblem. The characters play their part prefectly and some might be bad but some are very good.
Example: Idoun: At first, no one know her but she was a dark dragon in Fire Emblem 6: Seals of the Sword (Secret Mission). Not much was known about her but it said that she was captured by human, and those humans who uses her to get more power have broken her souls. After sealed away in the Sealed Shrine, Roy went to get his Sword of the Seals, broke the seal and unleashed Idoun out in the world. Idoun was saved by Roy (only work if Roy finished her with the Sword of the Seals) and she began to recover over time, hoping that Idoun would be forgiven by people who she hurt. Lyon: Even through he was a prince of Grado, his father launched a war at his two childhood friends. Lyon is a nice person that Erika and Emphriam praises him for hoping to succeed his father one day. Until the war broke out, Lyon have changed completely. He was sick and weak in his own form, until he met Emphriam. He said that it was his doing that created the war. Because Lyon came a close contact with his country scared stone, Demon King have live inside of him and try to devocre him from the inside. Lyon, who only want to protect his country and help the world, was dead and the Demon King over him... He finally believe that he trust both of them to finish him off to stop the Demon King's plan. Fire Emblem 8: Sacred Stone. Renault: Although he appear in the very latest of the game does not make him bad. He was actually about 500 years old (and still look like in his mid-30) and knew Nergal. He was hoping to revive one of his friend with a little help from Nergal but Renault saw this horrible dead being and decide not to work with Nergal anymore. He was also once Wallace's teacher, he punch Bartre with one hit, and kill one of Lucius' father (I think). Renault, in the end, have wander around in the end ever since he could remember his best buddies. Fire Emblem 7: Blazing Sword. Matthew: Even through he was a thief, Matthew is cheery and very supportive. Matthew was also in love with Leila (another spy who work for Ostia) and there was one more mission for Leila to warm Eliwood and his company. When Leila was killed by Jaffar, Matthew saw Leila's body and dig her the grave. When Matthew saw Jaffer, he forgiven him for killing Leila and in the end, he was still thinking about Leila... Poor Matthew never have a chance to see Leila in the end. They both made a problem but Leila could not keep her part. Fire Emblem 7: Blazing Sword. Notice that each one have their own feeling and affection as well? Both Lyon and Idoun were nice people until something have broken their souls. Renault wasn't well known in the end and still a mystery about him. Matthew loved Leila and Leila loved Matthew. Matthew felt totally brokenheart to see that Leila was dead (they were in the wood at that time, Jaffar kill Leila in a temple). Just because you give them a background doesn't mean you know everything about them. You have to make them develop some feeling and emotion if you are to write a story. If there are no powerful emotion to speak out of, then the character would have no meaning then. Elara, I hope you don't mind but... As I see Elara Siannodel's background, all I see was that she was a revenger, and power-hungry. Morwen Nailo show me that she just hated her father and want to maintain neutral and helpful. Now if I look at Matthew's background, I don't see a thieve who love a girl. I see a thieve who promise Leila to work and try to make her happy for doing his duties, even if she is dead. I see a person who was still brokenheart after the war ended... Other people may not understand him but that how should a character be. Background, emotion, feeling, characters are people who are just like us, events that made us of who we are. Even a characters who have no memories of his life can still be call a character if you added some emotion and feeling to him. Whew... I think I overdid it myself. |
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 103 days Last activity: 103 days |
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| Elara is vengeful... both she and Morwen are, but neither of them are power hungry. Elara didn't like having money, she hated the upper society and how they act (wealthy, or High Elves are pricks, snobby pricks) and having to wear dresses. Her thirst for vengence kinda dissapears after she finds her brother alive and well, then it's just the development of her getting over her fear of being close to people.
Morwen, well, her novels are about dealing with that feeling of hatred. It basically boils down to a story about racism. I'm still working out details on that one. |
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Dark Vader Slime Since: 10-21-04 From: Menzoberanzan Since last post: 7048 days Last activity: 7034 days |
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| Elara: Sounds good. I would read it. | |||
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AlpoRaggins Troubadour Not so much dead. Since: 12-11-04 From: Someday, Somewhere, Over the Rainbow Since last post: 6616 days Last activity: 6505 days |
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| Elara: its pretty difficult to create a whole new world. I keep having struggles with it, but for the sake of the story it may have to be somewhere other than earth, despite the complete resemblance. I'm starting to think its the same planet, so maybe it'll be an unnamed country. Its set in a turn of the century, 1800's-like setting, so that was sort of hard to describe without referencing America's turn of the century..
I'm sort of torn between two ideas, but I'm leaning more towards one... In my story (River Notes) there is a character who's purpose in life is to promote peace. But as the world teeters on the edge of hopelessness, he still stays happy despite all that is around him. The idea is that there is a being that can use the sorrow of other people as a sort of energy. She attempts a global genocide of joy and finds a way to make everyone feel crappy. They aren't physically hurt, its an emotional thing. Oh yeah, its not really her, its this force that is inside her using her as a sort of figurehead. So as the story progresses, the force feels it needs more attention on its earthly body and begins to block out the moon with a concentrated form of itself that it gains whenever it syphons the sorrow from a being. In the unnamed land that this story takes place, the moon represents many things to the people. Its sort of a holy object that they all are always happy to see, but now that it is gone from the night sky, they're sorrow builds up and thus! yes, it is themselves who are blocking out the very thing they love. But, The whole premise of the characters chasing after the woman is: 1) The (sort of) main character was her lover and feels it is unfair that this force has engulfed her. He's an average man who is placed with the most pain on his shoulders. In order to stop this, he has to get rid of her and himself somehow, as he is the top most syphon for the woman's (Her name is Marcelle, btw) power. He frantically, in the beginning searches for her, and when news of the moons blockage comes, he realizes what he must do, but doesn't want to do it. NOW. To keep his sanity and to keep him from getting close to this side of Marcelle there are the following other two characters: 2) Marlowe, who yearns so much for something that he is unable to attain. He travels with Turshman (the guy talked about above) as a sort of body guard, but all he wants in the beginning is a sort of fame. Slowly he grows to be extremely close friends with Turshman, and is a small target for Marcelle to stop, so she doesn't do it with her own hands. He's constantly being hunted down by hired groups, but his death wouldn't mean as much as the third guy: 3) The Peddler, and the character who I'm having a small problem with. Though he promotes peace and everything, its hard to throw him into the action of the story. What I think he is going to do is the helper of whoever is in need and the actual fighting will be left to Marlowe and Turshman. I think it would make his character stronger if he stood up to his beliefs and not fight physically. The reason to why he is on they're journey for Marcelle is that he is the very most bothersome person for Marcelle. He is the one person she cannot take any sorrow from, and thus the moon will never be completely eclipsed. Later on in the story he becomes known as "The Corona" as the ring of light around the moon is due to his willingness to withstand against the power that has swallowed everyone up. If I haven't explained why she's trying to get all this power, its because of a perverse nirvanic state that the force inside her (eventually called Tragedy) wants to obtain. I won't go into much detail about that right now though. So, I think the Peddler should not engage in any combat or anything, and simply save the two other characters asses when they're in trouble. Does that sound like it'd be a good idea, or is there anyway I could/should fix it? (Whew *finished unneccisarily long post* Done!) |
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 103 days Last activity: 103 days |
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| Wow, that does sound like an interesting story! I agree, it would be against the character's nature for him to really get in the fights, so being a support person in battle makes more sense. Perhaps have him look for ways to end the fight without someone dying... like a major distraction or something, you know bunch of barrels rolling off a cart at the enemies so they have to run, or something like that. | |||
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Rauni Since: 08-14-04 Since last post: 1548 days Last activity: 1548 days |
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| I did my story but the problem is that no one decided to read it any more… *sob* Well, I guess I’ll put my story about Beowulf in case… Nothing has change so I am happy to keep it that way… Since no one are not going to read my story, I guess it would be okay to post in here.
Beowulf – Although he can’t remember anything of his life, his demonic bodyguard help him to recover some memories he had. Beowulf didn’t recall all of them so he doesn’t responds very clearly and obedient to Lufica. Because Lufica was trying to help Beowulf survive in this world, Beowulf saw one of Lufica’s action (killing a human) and began to “separate way”. Beowulf actually overreacts when Lufica told Beowulf to deliver the final blow, and something holds Beowulf back from killing that human. The human then response quickly, hit Beowulf’s stomach; try to make a quick getaway and Lufica kill him. Lufica try to follow Beowulf, but was caught up in fighting more humans (murderers) and he promises to “save” Beowulf after he was done. Beowulf kept running until something knocks the back of his head. Beowulf was in a soulless state, even without any memories, he could think of killing innocent. While not completely in this state, another characters came into this story, a cursed beast human that promised to bring life back to his species. Kais have his story, where he was living alone but the townspeople still love Kais. Kais wanted to transform into a beast but couldn’t so he lived in a house deep in the wood. Unaware of their plan, Kais was tricked into believing that the elf would help him break the seals of the curse. Even through it was going smoothly for the elf; the elves lead a massacre over Kais’ townspeople. Only Kais was the survivor and he didn’t remember anything happen… When Kais saw Beowulf, the elves restrict him from touching him. Kais with some few doubts about the elf, decide to eavesdrop on their meeting. He heard of what they were planning to do with Beowulf (although it wasn’t very specific and clearly.) and also hear what they are going to do with Kais… use him as a part of tool for controlling the world. Outrageous in behavior, Kais bust into the meeting and the elves saw Kais in rages. The elves laugh because they have full control over Kais, but it was Kais who broke the seal. He later transformed into a beast, slaughter every elves (who aren’t really elf people. They are actually supernatural who look like elves.) and was mortally wound by the leader… Having little strength left in him, Kais (while in his beast form) walk over to Beowulf and rest in his laps. That woke Beowulf from his soulless state, since he was feeling that warm feeling in his heart. He rests afterward, without knowing who give that warm feeling again. (Don’t worry, they both woke up in the morning and the story still continues. I decided to end here seeing how much I made it.) Well? Does this story sound interesting? I know I got bad grammars anyway but as least I know can make a good story and using character’s behavior to make the story flow. |
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AlpoRaggins Troubadour Not so much dead. Since: 12-11-04 From: Someday, Somewhere, Over the Rainbow Since last post: 6616 days Last activity: 6505 days |
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| Whoa. Yeah that sounds interesting. Where is it? I wanna read it now! Hah, I feel the same way about the story I'm writing, I posted it on a couple of boards and only one person cared to read it. I think I even had it here for a while, but it only got like, six views. Three of which were from me...
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 103 days Last activity: 103 days |
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| That does sound interesting Beowulf... different from the one that you had me doing editing for, but I kinda like it better.
Yeah... I had Darkfang on here for a few months before I got a comment. I originally had quite a few comments on it, but that was before the post wipes.  |
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AlpoRaggins Troubadour Not so much dead. Since: 12-11-04 From: Someday, Somewhere, Over the Rainbow Since last post: 6616 days Last activity: 6505 days |
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| I think I've read a little bit of Darkfang. I know on the OLLLLLLLLLLLLLLD old old old old AR, I read a small excerpt from it, and on Xeogaming one time I read the beginning. If it's here, I'll make a note to read it sometime tonight as I will with yours, Beo. | |||
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Rauni Since: 08-14-04 Since last post: 1548 days Last activity: 1548 days |
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Originally posted by Elara And I gotta apologize for that...  :giggle: But as least I can able to keep my thought on how should it progress through since the one I did early seem kinda stupid with everything jumping to the conclusion and I felt that it lacks detail and specific emotion as well.
Well, I dunno if Raike will be making appearance through... And the reason I didn't read much story because I suck in literature. Maybe I should try reading your story to get some ideas. |
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