Character Inspirations

SylandraSylandra Join Queue for Mafia GamesThe Last Mafia Game
edited September 2016 in Common Grounds
We all get some of our ideas for our characters from elsewhere. Books, movies, TV shows, comics, manga, anime, etc. A Facebook post has been circulating where you post the "three fictional characters you identify as" and it made me think of Lusternia and how that's often true of our own character personas.

So! What characters have inspired your Lusternian persona?

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Sylandra I think has a bit of the following character archetypes in her DNA:

-Margaery Tyrell from Game of Thrones

-Highly ambitious player of the political game through social maneuvering, particularly through marriage.
-Careful in what she says to which people.
-Exceedingly well connected.

-Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby (The good and the bad!)

-Shameless flirt and a cynic. But sentimental.
-A bit self-serving, but never overtly so. Subtly manipulative.
-Appears more innocent than she actually is.
-Similar fashion aesthetics.

-Lady Amalthea from The Last Unicorn (mainly her appearance, but also a few mannerisms)

-Mainly the appearance, but also, Lady Amalthea's uncertain awkwardness in her human form is basically Syl at her most vulnerable.
-Also probably the part of Sylandra that's obsessed with writing tragedies.
-Also I could see her with Mia Farrow's voice.

-Lady Mary Crawley from Downton Abbey

-Both shady and a lady, but even though she's known her share of past scandal, manages to always redeem her image.
-Stubborn beyond all reason, yet manages to stay graceful.
-Ambitious and sometimes a bit too standoffish (particularly in matters of the heart), but actually a good person. Usually.

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Your turn! Share what characters have inspired your Lusternia personas. :D
Daraius said:
"Oh yeah, you're a naughty mayor, aren't you? Misfile that Form MA631-D. Comptroller Shevat's got a nice gemstone disc for you, but yer gonna have to beg for it."
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Comments

  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    Sylandra? Shady?
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • LuceLuce Fox Populi
    Luce was created around a deep dark secret he refuses to share with just about everyone. Ever. Threw in a dash of manic depression and a smidge of Remy from Ratatoille and Grandpabbie from Frozen. (seriously, watch him when I emote him working with illusions or talking about food.) Season with crushing self-doubt to taste.

    My Seren alt is one part Bellweather, one part Foxxy Cleopatra, and one part Porky Pig. She, oddly, does not have self-esteem issues, though she does have a tendancy to pause, stutter, and trip over her words.
  • edited September 2016
    Zuko...then I read the rules for names then swapped the vowels >.>

    (though at first I planned to be an orc bard, then I decided to go mage) so now I'm a firebender.
  • LavinyaLavinya Queen of Snark Australia
    Thyelleia said:
    Ushaara said:

    and the best for last....


    :D

    Oh, Mr Darcy :D
    And that is why all the ladies loooooove @Ushaara. Brb making Halli-alt.



  • edited September 2016
    Insert wall of text warning.

    So Eldanien's theme was originally planned to be Merlin-esque, full on mystic with a dash of Gandalf's vagrant busybody exploring and poking his nose in new places.  I built his (and Tarielenwe's) names using dialects of Tolkien's Elvish languages, and then bent his name so that it created a more adventurous expectation of him.  Even now, I sometimes 'hear' Dartanian when I read his name.  That original view of Eldanien didn't last long, but certain elements stuck around. Here we are, a decade later, and I can still recognize bits of Eldanien's (and Lusternia's) first few days in the character.

    Eldanien started out as a Celestine with a strong Light Mage (rather than priestly) bent.  Influences were Final Fantasy's White Mage, World of Darkness Celestial Chorus.  I created him with the intention of defecting to Serenwilde early on, marrying the generally modern-good elements of the Light with the grimdark survival-of-the-fittest mode of Serenwilde.  But then Celest got curbstomped so hard that the population plummeted and I couldn't bring myself to abandon ship.  In the end, I decided to shift his planned future and stay in Celest.

    Time passed, and I went dormant due to reasons.  I came back just in time for the monks to come out, something I had put a lot of hope into when I came to Lusternia.  So I was able to have Eldanien join in on that, and his theme became a bit more priestly.  I still considered him more Wizard than Cleric, yet here he was quite firmly a Monk.  It worked for me, at any rate.  Over the years he has leaned more one way or the other, but for the most part has stayed with the Wizardly (think wise man as opposed to magic man) theme, growing more serene and philosophical over time.

    I have (and often still do) draw on these inspirations:

    Sam Neill's Merlin.  Also Merlin from Microprose's Master of Magic.  Definitely more the ineffable mystic element here.  The fact that Merlin's story has certain darker tones available was a side benefit I never got to adopt, though I think Merloch pretty much nailed down.  That said, I'm revisiting the Wizard-In-His-Tower theme and may be incorporating more of that in Eldanien's make-up in the future.



    What with my return and the rapid shift in my expectations for Eldanien's future development as a monk, I found a way to blend his past and existing themes into where I wanted to get him.  Though it was an in-between place, it definitely had its own flavor and lasted long enough to be a significant part of Eldanien's history.  The transition looked something like Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan Kenobi, mostly because I was looking for a mystic-martial blend that had the right flavor:



    A certain confidence and certainty in his beliefs, having bled for them, angsted over the little inner conflicts, and coming to grips and peace with the Light, leaving behind an unshakable sense of wellbeing and contentment with his place in the world. Proud AND humble.  But again, this was a transition phase, marrying the Wizardly Light Mage/Priest of his past with the humble monk he was about to become.

    For the longest time, Eldanien was a lot like Kwai Chang Cain in his mystic/priest mode (an aspect more emphasized in Legend Continues).



    Eldanien and the Tahtetso shaped each other significantly early on in the guild.  In many ways, Eldanien is easy to overlook.  While I'm certainly vociferous and probably more memorable in OOC chatter, Eldanien is generally soft spoken, quietly goes about his work towards good things big and small.  And despite having stopped being a combatant way back in his Celestine days, Eldanien has a surprising amount of potency if one looks closely.

    Even though he has fully adopted the humble monk persona, this does not keep his past knowledge and abilities from influencing him, contributing to his makeup.  To explore that further, I recently had Eldanien go on a spiritual journey of sorts to and through each guild in Celest.  Not only did he pick up every skill taught in Celest, he also delved into each guild's version of the Light.  I'm still looking for some way to tie all of this together into one concept, though the closest I'm coming up with is Ascended Daniel, played by Michael Shanks:






  • For shits and giggles, I'm actually studying various philosophy since Gaudiguch is apparently like that. Still trying to decide what I'm going to run with, I've layed plenty of options out though.
  • LavinyaLavinya Queen of Snark Australia
    Lavinya is a concept I carried over from another site, who has morphed and changed. She does have some definite outside inspiration, though most is from books so it's hard to give a picture, but I'll see what I can find!

         If you've read the Wheel of Time, you may recognise a touch of Lanfear and a liberal serving of black ajah. That is where a lot of her demeanour comes from - a cool facade covering a cruel and slightly crazy inside. Lanfear was also manipulative and power hungry, and reknown for her incredible beauty, and proud, arrogant and self-absorbed. Yeah I know, much familiar.

         If you've read any of the Kushiel books, you may see some shared traits in Lavinya and Melisande Shahrizai. Extremely cunning, manipulative, hedonistic and sadistic. Selfish, though loyal to family, and it's from her I got the love of politicking and string-pulling. Also very sensual, alluring and beautiful.

         As for appearance, I got a lot of inspiration from this picture (which I used to represent my original Lavinya character)


         


    The snark and sass is all me, turns out it's irrepressible. My sense of humour bleeds through too, and a lot of the historical romance novels I've read have inspired her strong sense of being decorous and dressing appropriately and always helped her look down on her non-noble peers.



  • Lavinya said:
    Lavinya is a concept I carried over from another site, who has morphed and changed. She does have some definite outside inspiration, though most is from books so it's hard to give a picture, but I'll see what I can find!

         If you've read any of the Kushiel books, you may see some shared traits in Lavinya and Melisande Shahrizai. Extremely cunning, manipulative, hedonistic and sadistic. Selfish, though loyal to family, and it's from her I got the love of politicking and string-pulling. Also very sensual, alluring and beautiful.



    I absolutely adored the Kushiel books overall. Phèdre could get a little bit too much at times but some of the chapters with Melisande though I mean wow *fans*
  • ShaddusShaddus , the Leper Messiah Outside your window.
    My two year old's middle name is Phedre because my wife enjoyed the book series so much :D
    Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
  • That's a classy sounding name. @Shaddus
    is dead like the dodo
  • I've shifted so many times I first thought about being a silly pyro
    Embodying this feel: 


    But then I was like noooo I'll be an emo kid who likes playing with fire!

    But then as I was reading Spider-Gwen (totally recommend) and I got the classic quote stuck in my head.
    (pic is the original version, not the well known version but whatever)



    So now the character of Zoku has his own super powers of FIRE and will help when he can. If he doesn't help, and something bad happens it's his fault. 

    As for looks I'm just an argonian with nice horns
  • EnyalidaEnyalida Nasty Woman, Sockpuppeteer to the Gods
  • Uuhm. Let's see; I never really thought about where I draw inspiration for Ulalah, but I'm sure it's from somewhere. It has to be. It always is. Appearance-wise, initially, I based her on pictures of women dressed up in faun costumes for Halloween - freckled and charming; add in a bit of faeling, a bit of Glomdoring, and you had the first version of Ulalah's body. Then I saw descriptions like @Salome and @Rancoura and decided it needed to change. (#EndRamble)

    Personality-wise, Ulalah is a bit less simple to describe:

    Harley Quinn
    • Super unstable.
    • High-energy.
    • Fond of acts of violence rather than traditionally romantic gestures.
    @Nienla
    • Adapted personality traits from her.
    And a bunch of other weird self-serving personality traits rolled up into her, because I'm bad at references.
    image
  • Ulalah said:
    Uuhm. Let's see; I never really thought about where I draw inspiration for Ulalah, but I'm sure it's from somewhere. It has to be. It always is. Appearance-wise, initially, I based her on pictures of women dressed up in faun costumes for Halloween - freckled and charming; add in a bit of faeling, a bit of Glomdoring, and you had the first version of Ulalah's body. Then I saw descriptions like @Salome and @Rancoura and decided it needed to change. (#EndRamble)

    Personality-wise, Ulalah is a bit less simple to describe:

    Harley Quinn
    • Super unstable.
    • High-energy.
    • Fond of acts of violence rather than traditionally romantic gestures.
    @Nienla
    • Adapted personality traits from her.
    And a bunch of other weird self-serving personality traits rolled up into her, because I'm bad at references.
    So different to what I imagined!

    Based only on the name, which I can not help pronouncing Ooh La La! in my head, I was hoping you would be pursued by Pepe Le Pew, an insistent Furrikin.

    I know I should keep these thoughts to myself

    Oh and Hi!
  • There are few people that might have influenced Skanylla

    1. Cassandra Pentaghast 
    Cassandra is drunk and hates the inquisitor:



    2. Aveline Vallen
    Aveline is being pushed over her limits by Hawke:


  • Aramel said:
    I kept intending to post in this thread when it first came up, but never got around to it until a fit of boredom today - apologies for the (semi) necro.

    1. Galadriel

    - Nobody who knows about my Tolkien obsession is at all surprised.
    - Has seen just about everything
    - Is good at presenting an unflappable demeanor
    - Has a slight wistfulness
    - I am totally ripping off her wardrobe

    2. Elinor from Brave
    Image result for brave elinor
    - Political intrigue (but hopefully for good causes)
    - Secret matchmaker at heart
    - Likes to organize events
    - Cannot resist being a peacemaker (you will be nice to each other and you will like it!)
    - I'm totally ripping off her wardrobe too

    3. Anne of Green Gables

    - How do you combine Anne of Green Gables with Galadriel? I don't know, but it's happening anyway.
    - Irrepressibly blithe, with an impish sense of humour
    - Somehow gets involved in everyone's lives and gossip
    - Secretly a hopeless romantic who wants everything to be pretty and flowery
    - Literary pretensions
    - I'm not stealing her wardrobe
    Aaaaaaaah! I literally feel like squealing..just by seeing Anne of Green Gables. I know who's the Gilbert Blyth of Lusty. >:) I'd show you a picture of me when I was 5, with ginger hair and pigtails, but I have a rep' to keep lol 
    Moon Priestess Ridien says, "The blood of an animal, however, can also be a tool. Consider fetishes -
    - efficient, powerful tools created by ecologists. It is exactly as Kendra says -- a tool of bones 
    and blood that has been magnified, changed, enchanted. Made into a tool."
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