The Character in YOU

I’ve been wondering why people create their characters the way they do. Are they a reflection of you? Are they someone you wish you were? I’ve also been thinking about why people choose certain powers like fire, shapeshifting, or super-strength and where the character’s name came from. For me, my characters most often hint at something to do with me, whether it be my emotions or appearance or actions and such. Here’s some things about how Liev, Kaiser, and Katarzyna relate/don’t relate to me:

Liev
Liev is my most personal character and brings a lot of deep stuff to the table. I’ve had issues with standing up for myself and being proud of who I am, but mainly what I don’t know about myself. I’m also really spontaneous, random, and a bit immature. Paradoxes and other poetic elements are something I fancy as well. I created Liev after I drew a picture of a mysterious man with a sideways mask and really wanted to give him a story. My grandma helped a lot with motivation and inspired me to write a poem about this man, and so the grand journey began!

This is the poem:

Spoiler:

I named him “Liev Aleksandr Ehrlichmann” because I wanted him to sound more aristocratic and German and thought Liev was a cool name Ironically, I used the actor Liev Schreiber as a reference for both him and Kaiser, but only because I thought he suited them well.

Kaiser
Kaiser (whose name was pretty much random) was originally just Liev’s evil counterpart (like a projection of his bad side), but when I posted a profile for him, Emblem noted that I didn’t really need a separate topic if he was a part of Liev. I was stubborn and didn’t want to add Kaiser onto Liev’s history, so I started figuring out a way I could “separate” the two. SO LO AND BEHOLD, Liev’s infamous twin was born! (Thanks Emblem!) As I roleplayed the two, I started adding more onto their pasts and building up an endless pile of twists, ties, and other dramatic elements. I think Kaiser is the least-related character to me (which is probably a good thing). He’s just super evil and completely insane. -whoot villains-

Katarzyna
Strangely, most of the characters I create are female even though I’m male. Liev and Kaiser are two of the only four male characters I have out of 20 some-odd others. :P It’s not that I’m gay, but feel there’s a lot more possibilities with female charries and an easier way to depict emotion. Katarzyna was created when I thought I should “balance out” the twins for TTRPG and have a little more diversity. I’ve always wanted to make an electrokinetic character, especially after seeing Iron Man 2 with Mickey Rourke as Whiplash. I also wanted someone who was kind of spunky and tough with a stubborn attitude and an awesome appearance, and that is how Kat came to be. I used the name “Katarzyna Dolinski” after looking up some Polish names on babynamesworld.com, then deciding it was good-sounding name for a rebellious girl. Her drawing is a photomanipulation of a model I found on Google.

•••••

HOW ABOUT YOU PEEPS? TELL ME YOUR SECRETSSSS.

I was kinda thinking the same thing about why and how everyone picked their chars.

Tyler: He is the most like me out of everyone I have ever made. For a few reasons

1. he is a juggler: so am I but he is a much better juggler than me I can only juggle up to 6 balls, 5 rings, and 5 clubs while he can juggle 9 balls, 9 rings, 7 clubs. He is at the level I would like to be at one day. He is kind of my happy place where I go when I want to be happy because I love juggling and imagining I can juggle so amazingly makes me feel good.

2. His jokes are just about the same as mine but he doesn't do as many sexist, racist and, sex jokes as me but he still is close to when I make clean jokes when I'm In front of little kids.

3. He's bisexual. That kinda speaks for its self

4. his clothes are the same as mine. I have never worn jeans in my life or tight pants unless it's for a show and I don't like those that much.

That just about wraps up Tyler and why he's like me I got his name from random.



Austin: His powers were made by me and my brother while we were talking about mutants and such. A lot of him is stolen from his face claim which is Chase Stein(aka Talkback) from Marvels Runaways. The most he is like me is his personality. His jokes are exactly the same as mine you haven't really seen much of it because I just started using him but he will make sex jokes all the time and racist jokes but he doesn't mean them just like me. He flirts with people a lot like me but I do go after every girl that walks on a select few boys and girls. I got his name by naming after a friend of mine who's nickname is “captain awesome” named by me. His name is Austin but not Brickhouse that is kind of my other friends last name just changed a bit.

I have always loved Canons, the main reason being that the way to roleplay them is already set up for me. I don't have to think of what to say or how to reply, all I need to know is how to play the role of my character and ideas of what he or she might do come to me instantly from what media and comics I've read. Thus why the first I will mention is Ben.

Ben 10: The reason I chose Ben is basically his ability to be diverse and can fit into any storyline. A perfect example is Ben can fight in space, in a volcano, in the ocean, on land, while under fire and can take on all enimies. This makes him the optimum roleplay character for me, also I'm in love with the show....Well the first Ben 10 series atleast. In addtion, I love his powers and if I personally were to become a superhero the Omnitrix would be my weapon of choice for obvious reasons. Another thing to note is not all of Ben's aliens aren't made to fight, it's the way he figures out how to use them is what makes him great. For example Cannon Bolt, a rolley poley alien, isn't made to fight; it's made to tunnel through the earth, but Ben manipulates this ability in such a way that makes him one of the fiercest aliens he has.

Spider-Girl: Spider-Girl touches on my love for SPider-man, the ultimate "heroic" super-hero. Peter Parker is truly a superhero because he always does the right thing and is virtually incorruptible. He will stop at NOTHING to save anybody and anyone, even if their a jackass or he could be killed in the process it doesn't matter. He also is one of the most human super heroes...More so then Batman because he questions himself and his own motives like the rest of us. Where as all other heroes are usually sooo sure of themselves. Not to mention acrobatic heroes are my favorites, because I personally find feats of agility and prowess to be extremely exciting. In wrestling the cruiserweights were my favorites to watch and it translated into my love for super heroes as well.

JaK Sage: My very first REAL canon character besides his pokemon counterpart. JaK is based off my own snobbish personality, which from time to time will come out when I roleplay or just respond to someone on the site as you know Noah. He can be hard headed, thick, and a jerk at times. Yet he also has the traits that I wish I could have or I hope to one day hone in on. JaK has Willpower, the abiltiy to keep going when victory seems impossible and when he himself is down and out. He will attack all eneimies without thinking twice even if they are far more powerful and he has strong moral code even if he hates to ackknowledge it. JaK is based off me, infact JaK the roleplayer and JaK my RPG character is the side of me people don't get to see in the real world. The side of me I hide from society. His main power is of course will power and the acrobatics comes from my love for Spider-Man, Robin, Low KI (Wrestler) and other people in the field of acrobatics. His matter absorbing power is stolen from the show Ben 10, which I felt was a good power because all others to me are over used. Not to mention I needed a power that would allow me to get in close and get my hands dirty. Notice Sage has no projectiles, thats because he like Wolverine loves to go toe to toe and test the will power of those against himself. He likes the feeling of a true victory that he took from his opponent. Such as his creator, who likes to feel like he truly earned all that he receives.

Ooo, this is good.

Lance: Lance represents really me growing up. He starts off as a shy person until you get to know him, cause then he won't stop talking like me! Lol Lance's shy side is me as a kid like pre-high school years. The way Lance currently is now, all talkative and friendly now, is me now really. Then the reason that Lance talks to himself or thinks A LOT is because that's what I do with almost everything. I really do think too much >.< His whole orphanage and lonely past is how I portrayed my parents getting divorced and how I felt alone at that time. Um.... what else is there? Oh! Why he uses a sword, well I just love swords so I was like he is getting a sword somehow :P. I really don't know why I chose the powers that I did right now, it was kind of random I guess. If I could change them I probably would cause I normally like a character that is more human and doesn't have powers. I would pick a person that uses more gadgets or conventional items.

Malferus: Hm.... I don't know, probably just the badass in me or something

Model Eleven is the most like me. He is extremely intelligent, but is frustrated by 'human' things. He doesn't know what is expected of him at times and goes a little overboard once in a while. That said, he always tries his hardest because he knows it is what he is supposed to do. He wants to protect everyone and would make better decisions for them if he could. Point One is a part of Evan that just can't stand how people destroy themselves. He just wants to force everyone to behave themselves, sometimes at the cost of their individuality. As for Evan's power, I've always thought computer ghosting would be a cool one to have.

Grace Koori, on the other hand, hates technology. I get frustrated with technology at times and Grace is the manifestation of that anger. On a more serious note, she is the manifestation of Holy Rage. Anger is not always a bad thing. It is only the misuse or overuse of anger that creates problems. Grace knows what is right and wrong and she won't allow what is wrong to stand. She is also searching the earth for her love, though she doesn't know who that is. Is her search hopeless? I don't know, but I hope not. Perhaps Grace's one flaw is hubris. She often thinks herself better than others and is full of pride. Pride is something I have struggled to control in my life. In the end, it is Grace's high self esteem that makes her stand up for the weak, for she sees herself as a defender/avenger. Why her ice power? I live up in Minnesota, where it was -20 degrees Fahrenheit when I invented her. What is that in Celsius? I don't know, but it is very cold.

Dar Thle Golas obviously got his name from a joke I have about Legolas from Lord of the Rings being a Sith in Star Wars. As for his power, I've always imagined being super-strong. Character wise, Dar reflects the evil side that is, I believe, within all of us. He just wants to destroy for the fun of it. Why would we all be on this site if we didn't enjoy the fights? Everyone has an evil side of them that wants to do something terrible, and that is Dar. Even though he is an alien with little or no moral convictions, Dar looks pretty much like a normal person. The reason I made him a parademon was because of a fan-fiction I started writing (and never finished). The story told what the Teen Titans were doing when Darkseid was invading earth.

It's interesting to see how many people share secrets through their characters. Or how much they show themselves. It presses life unto them. My character can be accounted for as well. Well, the friendly Emblem. I trimmed it down extremely, but it's still a big read. For your entertainment, here's the long story of Emblem.

Be prepared as it does get really personal at moments.

The name Emblem was a spur of the moment: While I had never paid attention to it, I had to enter a nickname on a flash-based website with a 'game' named Habbo. Pure out of boredom, I had started playing that name, modeling a guy with a fancy suit, yet a red Afro look. Chic, yet different. For the name, I tried many things, before thinking how much I enjoyed the strategic game that was Fire Emblem. Enter, Emblem.

''Name not yet taken''. Sweet.

While I had typed it in, I imagined I liked the name for more then one reason. Not just because fire Emblem on the GBA was a great game, but also because the name itself did not mean a lot by itself. Seeing names like xxDarkMagician666xx would always summon some manner of frowning as the name itself was not only pitiful, but it wasn't rally a name, and it would always be met with certain prejudice. Which I could understand, knowing that a nickname is a big part of everything on most games. Everyone was looking to carve out their persona, create their own signs (Emblem?) and play out virtual lives.

When I was about 14, I was a energetic kid who had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, yet have fun and do silly things with friends. I liked the English language, and had been granted a certain basic knowledge of it thanks to the Muppets Christmas Carol and other movies, along with games and the likes. I was playing a browser game called Virtual Online Wrestling, which I found in my search for WWE and related things. We did not have it on television, but after seeing it a few times on the internet or during late night television, I was hooked. Through VOW, I enlisted myself on a VOW-based E-fed site, which comes down to using your character on VOW and add some life by roleplaying with him. Matches would be fought on the site with the result posted, and going from there. Emblem became known as a friendly, little-weird-in-a-good-way guy from Holland.

However, I had more then just positive reasons to be friendly and energetic.

My brother was my rolemodel, as most are to their younger brothers. You rival on multiple things from disputes to football, but in the end, he was 3 years older, and my big brother. All the things he did, I had to wait for, and to me, he was cool. Until he got ill, mentally ill. My brother had begone acting a bit weirder and weirder, staying up in his dark room, and he would cry sooner. I will save you all the details, or I will not recall them to save myself from shedding a tear. Ironically, back in the day, it took a while for me to do so. When I could take no more, as a 14 year old tyke, I cried during breakfast, when mom had just forced my brother to go to school again. After that, they decided it was out of our hands, and we all needed mental healthcare. You don't go into therapy alone, the entire family goes with you. For me, it was more figure of speech. I did miss my brother though. Let's say it got really bad, and the things I heard and saw before he was admitted into mental care were, and will always be an invisible scar upon my mind. I am no religious person, yet I praise any divine deity there is on my bare knees, for the fact that my beloved brother is still with us today.

While my parents had to take care of my brother, 14-year old 'Emblem' portrayed enormous flexibility. Having only shed tears once, he would tell his parents that his brother needed their fullest of attention, and he would be fine. He never spoke ill, he would always behave. Yet it's impossible for an individual entering puberty to not show it;s effect. It did, but I was too by-god stubborn to show anyone else I was not happy.

My efforts bore fruits. I was known as a notorious joker in class, making jokes during class, getting bad grades (even if he was on the highest level of education high school has to offer. He was smart, just didn't seem to use his brains) in all classes but PE. I had friends, old and new ones, and none of them ever saw something wrong. When some heard of my brother, they came up to me, confessing they never saw. I could not blame them. I would not want them to see. No teacher, not even my own mentor, had noticed. All that suffered were my grades, but that was also because I wasn't really one of the learning type. However, I did spend a lot of time behind the computer, growing more introvert. In real-life, I would always pay more attention to other people's problems. I solved some on multiple accounts.

Emblem flourished in those days. I went from VOW-based E-fed to regular roleplay E-fed site, and Emblem would get at least 15 posts a day. Promos, interviews and the likes, Emblem was quickly rising as a wrestler combining some extreme traits, while still being friendly in general. An adrenaline junkie at heart, leaping through the rings with extreme speed and aerial displays, while being friendly to everyone. Making sure everyone was okay, solving their problems, while never openly asking for attention himself. A pure reflection of the real me.

Emblem, and with that roleplaying, became my second life. The Emblem inside my growing, getting his own life, coinciding with me if you will. What I had not, Emblem did. It was like two lives, intertwined. I still love the irony and the delicacy of duality, to this day on. I still see at least two sides to every argument, and always have multiple things to do.

TTRPG Emblem was a bit of a deviation from the wrestling Emblem, as the Emblem wrestling had grown older. I had spent multiple years there, making new friends, some of who I still have contact with on a daily basis. Yet he grew tired of it. Coincidentally, EVPW still has some of the people I worked with in those days. They still know me, and my account is still allowed and welcomed there. Even years after I stopped E-fedding I got MSN invites.

TTRPG Emblem took E-fed Emblem's long white hair, gave him the same weird-in-a-good-way happy-go-lucky attitude, yet also the helping hand in general, and moments of reflection; Some which I still have as well. My brother had been 'cured' yet I had changed as well. Not only had I grown older, my stubborn practice in hiding my true feeling had given me the ability to mask them, alongside multiple tricks to manipulate and divert attention towards other things; As long as they did not try to find stuff out about me.

However, I know better now. All that 14 (to 17?) year old individual wanted was someone to help him. To notice, to ask, and make him feel better. Someone to hold him. I was good at what I did, yet not very happy with it. It taught me some valuable lessons as well as increased my observational skills, reasoning, and dire needed subtlety. I could solve other people's problems, and pay attention to those who needed it, but I could not truly help myself. The problem had too deep roots, and because I had made a habit of masking my feelings, nobody would ever notice what I truly wanted. This aspect also burned itself into TTRPG Emblem. He could help others, yet never seen able to help himself (portrayed in the murder of his fiancee and eradication of his village, he would only want one thing, yet that one thing was unobtainable, leaving him alone.) Coincidentally, I have exact the same thing with a girl I loved as well. Yet we separated due to other factors. I still want to be with her, yet I know I can never. As Krious rightfully noted, no matter how mentally strong you are, 'it screws you up big time.'

TTRPG Emblem is a Magician, mostly a fire wielder. I always did play the magician when playing games...and I had always taken an interest in myths, legends (as you read I love to interweave them in stories, take a look at 'Emblem's Burned Down Apartment' concerning the Book of Knowledge) and loved the idea of magic. Strength other then power of muscle. Emblem would have the ability to easily obtain magical energies, and had learned to weave them into spells. This was a reference to the real me. I have acquired experience and created my own knowledge on several things such as personal intercourse. Basic things I had learned, and perfected to use them to my own ends, polished by the means of education. Flexibility was a must, gripping back to my personality. And he loved fire. It was a duality in itself; Fire could breed utter destruction. Matter burned would never revert back, as burning was nothing but a physics process in which material changed from one state into another, the unique thing being the fact that it could not get back to it's original state. Yet Fire was also life, giving a special kind warmth, not only in heating and fireplaces but also providing plenty of other meaningful uses. I still speak praise of Krious' fireplace at his house. It's small, but so darn comfy! Same reason why Emblem's old apartment had one as well.

Emblem's evilness never really was a part of me. I had left TTRPG after making TTRPG2, as TTRPG itself had no moderator to keep watch. TTRPG2 was very successful, with members like Krious, Simca, and yours truly to party around. However, inactivity came as we all had our own lives, and we had to deal with some frustrating members. Subtlety had it's benefits, but not at that time. How I loved prancing and eventually swinging the Banhammer. Anyway, when I got back to this site and had been granted Admin status by Mitsurugi, Emblem turned evil soon because we had a severe lack of villains. I had always regarded myself as a bit mental/weird-in-a-good-way, walking the lines between all the choices I saw in everything. In duality, there was good-for-others and good-for-himself. I decided to practice the latter for once. In real life, you wouldn't make friends. In TTRPG, it would make me a supervillain.

I think that's all. Typed way more then I expected. Strolling down memory lane truly is an interesting experience. Might have forgotten something, but I wouldn;t punish you lot with more reading. And now...

*High Fives the Emblem inside*

It’s really awesome to see I’m not the only one who puts so much of myself into the characters I’ve created. Not gonna lie, I’ve held a lot back with the ties for my characters in fear others would judge me because of them. I now realize I was pretty stupid to not do so... but now here I go! My characters in greater depth, one at a time per post because of length and lack of self-control;


EDITED! :O I guess I went a little overboard... sorry 'bout that. My mouth gets the best of me quite often.

My character's reflect me in a more simple way, I'll admit it's hard to follow up on Emblem's life (weeoowww) But I'll try to just lay me down for ya'll.

I have a warning too! Yay! my life is pretty much a self-pitying sob story, so yeah. it's just stupid like that.

Andrew:
Andrew grew from my feeling of being trapped. When I came up with him, I was under a lot of pressure thinking about what I wanted to do in life. I was caught between where I wanted to go to college, what I wanted to study, what I was interested in, the everyday monotony of school, and The dangerous combination they produced when put together. I was caught in a never-ending circle, torn between knowing what I wanted to do so I could go to college and not waste money, and not being able to figure out what I liked, a factor which led back to the first.
Andrew was some character who I could make even more trapped than I was, his life choices are limited down to following Seth, until he can get enough money. He may make plans, but he's someone more trapped than I am. The powers came from me hating my life, I always thought about getting pushed around, and how it sucked, so I wondered what it would be like to push back. I was incredibly tired when I thought him up, so the idea got switched to a literal push and from there on snowballed to his ability to shift objects.

Raven:
I chose this more as an alter-ego for my normal life. In true life, I'm emotional, difficult, and quick to anger; but often funny, cheerful, encouraging and helpful. Often my emotions control me and the aftereffects are disastrous, I'm any 15 year old kid, but I probably have some mental disorder that makes all of my feelings supercharged. I've struggled with suicidal thoughts from basic things. Today for example was one of the most stressful days of my life. But all of these negative emotions are balanced by my better emotions, the ones I find come out when around friends. My emotions caused more problems than they solved though, and I was thinking of how I would be so much better off without them.
Thus, who was Raven but a teenager like me who had released his (well, her) emotions. She'd trapped them in her mind and lived her life devoid of the suffering and the joy that lie within every human. This seemed like a magnificent place to start, as it gave me a place to run away and feel nothing for a bit.
My method for RPing as Raven is just to stick to the way the original Raven would act in the TT series.
This was perfect.
It gave me the chance to practice living a life without the emotions I'm forced to experience every day through the act of living.

... and as a side note... raven's just friggin' cool.

Inoko: My one and only character so far who also describes alot of my personality. She is somewhat psychotic as shown from some of my posts from her bloodthirsty side which shows the hatred that goes on through my veins against certain people. And can be very tempermental, losing her temper over many things and usually holds a grudge also against certain people. Though she is quite intelligent, I am not one to study but I'm probably just as smart or smarter. She also brings out my love of art as seen through "House Of Inoko Apartment#13 Floor 6" and the beginning of "Work Of Art", since she is an artist and I wish to create a manga later on in life. She also shows my shyness and somewhat negative attitude alot as well as some of my sensativity towards barrages of insults. She also shares my flexibility and speed although I am not as fast as her.

To be continued......Oh, one more thing yes, I am a guy, and I am straight.

Jay: High spirited and overly energetic. The person I am behind a computer screen, or when I've just had way to many pixie stixs. lol. I've always liked birds of prey and drawing birds, so I figured an artistic bird person was a good idea. And her name's Jay because alot of people think its a guys name, just like how people think my name is a boys name (user name and real life name) Jay doesn't like being being called names kinda like how I don't. But she gets shy around people at times too ( have I written her being shy yet? >,> hmmmm, don't know... any way.)

Nikki: Me and my friends were suffering from our most recent sugar high and got on the topic of were wolves and why wolves got all the fame of being weres... then some one said they had heard of a were rat and I thought it wasn't cool that a rat could be a were but not a ferret. THUS NIKKI WAS BORN!!! MWA HAHAHAHAAAA!!! Plus I LOOOOOOOOOOVE ferrets and I had gotten a book called "After Man" and it showed pictures of giant ferrets of the future, soooo I decided a were ferret should be ^ foot long about to make it more scary, >,> besides were's are usually oversized any way....
ANYWAY! Nikki is more like my own character out from behind a computer screen, really shy with the occasional bursts of anger. ^.^ Plus Nikki is an awesome name (once again kinda boyish in a way... >,>)

Plus there both ANIMAL LOVERS!!! YEAH ANIMALS!!!
Yeah I know not a long story behind my characters, but hey. lol.

Ah, Emblem! I read your whole post and I gotta say, I wish you didn't shorten it! That made me laugh and cry...wow dude...intense...the more history you have with a character, the more it grows on you and the more you put into it...

I just hope my characters get some of me into it as time goes on because right now, they're pretty much nothing like me haha

I guess maybe Thr33 was sort of like me a few years ago when I felt alone...but not abandoned...like I wanted to get away from everything too and start brand new, like how Isaac went from his home to a few hundred years in the future...But I think everyone kind of wants a chance to start over right? ...Probably not in the way Isaac did though...

Scope...brand new...none of me in him yet really...let's see how I roleplay with him...

Emmy, that post was quite wonderful .

I've had many RP characters, 'Robyn' was the original on TTRPG 1, then I had 'Tide' on TitansGo.net forums, then finally emerged 'Alyss' through another site many of you will know called 'The Genesis Chronicles'. I had always wanted a more complicated character and I myself was going through a rough patch and thus 'Fear' was created and the combination became my perfect duo. Brutal, methodological and just a tad crazy.

And beautiful, she had to be beautiful. But the original Alyss was atrocious, she was hyperbolic about every little thing, far too angsty, far too emotional. I suppose she reflected my own thoughts at the time and indeed my own childish writing style, as I was only 15 at the time. I've always had self-image issues and a bout of eating disorder mayhem (which is what caused my lengthy absence) eventually led me to realise my mistakes, hone myself in and recover.
Alyss grew with me; I've made her emotionally distant with a side that is just bursting to get out, just as I myself have isolated myself from others to make myself better. She's smart, powerful and stupidly thin. But she's also fractured, lingering over her past and unable to stop her powerful other half. I realise now that it's impossible to live as Alyss does; totally alone and frozen from the rest of the world. You need people to remain sane - which is probably why Fear affects her so much.
Fear is impulsive, emotionally driven and excessive on every level, between her and Alyss lies my current mindset, they are like my ID and Superego with me playing the 'Ego' director between them to make myself appear normal.

In short, Alyss is everything I wanted to be. Fear is everything I hate about myself, all the other the top emotion that makes me feel perfectly horrid. As a reality, I lie in the middle, not quite up to the level of Alyss, but not quite Fear. But of course, no-one can be this super-powered meta human mentalist in reality, so settling for plain old me will have to do. Working hard and working out can only take me so far but maybe one day I'll feel comfortable enough to let Alyss and Fear go, for now though, they are what keeps me in check. They are a consistent reminder that I can do a lot worse, but that there is always room to improve myself too.