Writing a story - need characters

[Guest]

Intro and explanation

 

Hi. I will be taking a vacation from my work soon, a few weeks of time. That means I can finnally concentrate on things I enjoy doing, rather than just stuff I have time for. One of these things, as you can presume, is writing. In the past, I have written several Elder Scrolls fanfic stories of varying quality. I intend to begin on a new one when the vacation clock starts. At least I hope so, these things require inspiration and a lot of willpower to finish and edit. Maybe I will finish it, maybe I won't start at all. Who knows, each day brings another situation.

The process of thinking up good and realistic side-characters is long and would help me greatily if people would help. The thing is, I don't intend to reveal the backstory or concept behind it yet.

 

How does it work?

 

You might ask:

But Senpai Boka, how can we help if we don't know what characters you need?

Well, it's pretty simple on your side. I need personalities, not characters. Anything will really do. Even a trope such as an SSL can have a more deeper meaning in a concept of the elder scrolls universe. Why not make her, instead of a schoolgirl, a suicial warrior who liked the person of the same sex, but got their loved one killed, or got humiliated and rejected by the intolerant societies of Mundus.

To put it simply, I want you to send me your characters. They can be your SSL, your hardened HoS or just your regular bartender. Anything. You don't even have to change them to fit the universe, because I will have to do it anyway, to fit the narative. They will get a spacific race, role and abilities, depending on how much they fit the narative. They will stay as close to their original counterpart as the setting allows.

Everyone likes talking about their character, even writing, but sadly don't see a reason to write it. Feel free to send me as many as you like, I will use them as I see fit, with hopefully interesting results. One condition, though:

Make your discription/backstory as detailed, psychological and enigma-free as possible.

Sending me, Please use X, Y and Z does not help if I don't understand the inner workings of those characters. The best ones will might even get the role of main characters, if I decide to implement multiple. Some might get just cameos.

So, yes. Send the info over PM, Skype or post it here in this thread, as large as you want(please use paragraphs for clarity). The applications will be open until further notice.

Note: Just a note, by posting a character, you possibly allow him to do horrible things or die a horrible death. You've been warned. I'll make it as fitting of the characters as possible. Better development goes for better roles, give more possiblities.

Edited June 30, 2015 by Guest

[Magitech]

A stylish young man, wandering from place to place as a snake oil salesman. The child of a single mother, as his father, a soldier, died shortly after his birth. Worked in [insert generic manual labor here] to support his mother, while selling his toad blood based health tonics on the side or whatever. Marvelously good at persuading people that he's right and everyone else is wrong. He dresses in clothes fitting for a person of great wealth, despite being a landless merchant. Think heavy capes of bright colours and those borsalino caps with the feathers in them. His figure is decently well built, though not one of a combatant. Though he will usually manipulate his way out of a direct confrontation, if it's necessary he will draw a one handed sword from it's sheath, one encrusted with various jewels and with a hilt of gold and all other sorts of fancy things, leaving his other hand free to perform various rude gestures. He has a conspicuously fancy and long name for a lowborn.

(Will edit more as ideas come to me)

[Jboy2000000]

I have an elder scrolls character that Ive come to like. Tregas Veamillion. A Breton Scholar/Mage. His father was an aspiring cook, born in High Rock, but moved to Skyrim with his son Tregas, after his 18th birthday, in hopes to one day meet The Gourmet. His son had time to practice magic while in High Rock, mostly restoration and destruction to help his father, fire spells to help cook meals, and restoration spells for the odd kitchen mishaps that brought burns or cuts. He would need that training, as things did not go so well in Skyrim. High Rock had it's scoundrels and opportunists, but none so dastardly as the thieves and bandits of Skyrim. The trip was quiet, and they entered Skyrim through Haafingar, that was when it was when it got no so quiet. They were attacked by Highwaymen on their way to Solitude, his mother and father were killed, but whatever little magic he knew, the flame spells, were enough to convince the bandits the little kid was not worth their time. An Imperial scouting party found his family not long after morning rose the day after the attack. They took him and the bodies to Solitude. The bodies we're taken to the hall of the dead, and Treagas, with no home, gold or place to stay in Solitude, was told to go to Riften. He was old, but no technically an adult yet, so he would be sent to the orphanage. He was taken by caravan across Skyrim, through Haafingaar, through Hjarlmarch and Morthal,the Pale and then through Dawnstar, his place was meant for Riften, but his journey ended in Winterhold. When the Caravan stopped to resupply in Winterhold, he heard of the Collage for the first time. It was cold, the coldest place he ever knew, but he was a Breton, magic was supposed to be his talent, right? Maybe this was supposed to be a sigh, he heard the drivers saying that their usual route took them through Windhelm, but something kept them away. A sign, it had to be. He convinced the inn keeper to tell the caravan that they were adopting him, in turn he cooked for them, his father's teachings finally coming handy. It worked, and he did keep his promise. But as soon as the caravan left town, he regretted his choices. He, for some reason, didn't expect an entrance exam before even entering the collage, and his magic skills, after much neglect in his journeys and lack of high, professional training in High Rock, he couldn't pass, not at first, at least. As it happened, the tavern he "worked" for had someone who was thrown out of the collage living there. He wasn't being payed, so he didn't feel bad for giving food to him away for free, in return for the training he needed to enter the collage. That was years ago, ages. Tregas is an old man now, more proficient than he ever could have hoped to have become in High Rock. He would not call himself a master of any sort, but he was trained well in the schools of restoration and alteration, and trained some in destruction, but he found a passion outside of magic, he found writing in the collage. Whenever he isn't practicing spells, or mixing brews, or generally doing whatever he thought the stereotypical Breton should do, he held himself away in the collage's library, reading whatever he could afford. He rarely even traveled outside of Winterhold, still barely does, just small trips into the frozen wastes to examine ice wraiths, and preform his more dangerous experiments in seclusion.

[Xelnagahunter]

As a DnD player I have a lot of options to lay out. But my favorite is a paladin that I played for a very long time, even recreating him in other styles.

Eric Derringer, a tall, fit man. IN his youth his hair was black and his eyes a steely grey, though in his age his eyes have whitened and his hair has greyed. (feel free to use him at any age of course.) HIs body is scar riddled due to his countless battles with evil and chaos. His weapon of choice is a long, hand and a half sword wielded in a single hand typically. He also tends to carry a heavy metal shield about as his primary defense. Sir Derringer is left handed.

Eric was born to a poor family in the worst parts of a great city. Sickness was widespread and at a young age the boy was orphaned. Before their deaths his parents tried to teach the boy of life and love. He learned to be kind, brave, and to know the difference between being fearless and being able to stand against your fears. The years following his parents death were hard, for he refused foster care and moved on to live as an urchin. Many orphan boys would group together to survive and often have a larger boy leading them. Eric was too young to be one of the large kids and was surely stuck following the orders of bullies. The group had a trick you see, they would crawl under the floorboards of taverns and shops and collect coins that fell through, often making just enough for the leaders to tax it all. Those bully leaders would buy some scrap food for the lot and eat well themselves on the coins taxed from the destitute young and the unfortunate small. Derringer learned quickly how to keep a few coins to himself and vowed not to spend them on useless things, so unless he was buying additional food for a particularly malnourished boy, Eric's money was saved. At the age of ten Eric had finally saved enough in his years. He purchased a sword. It was a small thing and the boy could hardly carry it properly, but it did it's job. He lead a revolution against the bullies that lead the orphans and with his sword in hand quickly ran the scared teens off. HE took to leadership, maintaining that each person work, but allowing them to keep their own share. Often using his own money to settle honest disputes. The young man was learning to discern lies well was fooled very infrequently by people cheating his system. Punishments were harsh, but not harmful. Simply being told to leave a particular neighborhood at the tip of a sword.

By the age of 15 Eric was noticed by the city guard. He was quickly recruited as a squire to one of the ranking members of the watch, demanding only that the boys be left to their own devices in the street. He relinquished his blade to the boy he trusted most, a young boy of 11, and left. His new station taught him to dress in armor, to properly carry and wield a sword, and even some basic swordplay. within a year a major gang assaulted the guards and quickly overpowered them. The 16 year old Derringer sprang into action without hesitation, fighting alongside his liege, saving him more than once from sneaky attacks by the thugs. For his valiant performance we was adopted into the watch fully, no longer a boy, but a man.

Four years passed before a tragedy occurred, demonic beings attacked. Bent on destroying everything. Derringer was quick to respond. He organized frightened men and encouraged them to stand up against their fears. The bolstered watchmen took the fight back to the hoard and pushed it away, causing survivors to fell in all directions. His activities, and the fall of the watch's commander during the struggle, saw the 20 year old promoted to lead, the youngest in hundreds of years to do so.

His time as a commander was short, within six months the boy found a calling. An adventuring paladin came through and Derringer chatted with the man at a tavern. Awe struck by the man's word he went on to church where he deigned to be a priest. The temple was under siege by monsters when the man arrived and his valiant efforts spurred the monks of the church to offer Derringer a different path, that of the holy warrior.

Thus I made a first level paladin. =P During his travels many things happened, including falling from a ship while wearing god-enchanted armor. To survive, he cut the armor loose and let it sink to the ocean's depths and has never replaced it. He fights with no armor save some padding and his shield to keep him safe.

That should be enough to get a basic idea of the character. his friendships were true, his intentions pure, and his desire to uphold law and justice from those who would corrupt it, unwavering. He was merciful however, a surrendered foe was in his charge and not to be harmed, provided they did not invite such harm after the point of surrendering.

I hope this helped. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

[Guest]

These are good. Albeit, currently have a lot of characters with magic talent. Too much, I'm afraid. I see a way to make them fit the narative.

However, I would like people to bring in more characters who are bastards or just outright gray. Special one, who can fit the needed category, will get a major role in driving the narative.

[Jboy2000000]

If you already have to many mages, don't worry about fitting mine in, I have a few others that might fight the bill. Do you have any room for an Elvish bard/hunter?

[Xelnagahunter]

If it matters, Eric is more the combat side of paladin than any sort of magic. I always avoided spells unless they were buffs or something I could use to interrogate someone without comiting evil (aka torture.)

[Guest]

Well, I have made some things set in stone. It's a very earily setting, which means it's mostly Elves that have access to advanced magic. Your character can belong to that group of elves, which actually has paladin types, which are called Templars in TES lore. However, these spacific elves are not the focus of the story, so might not recive proper character development.

The story itself is multiperspective (think Songs of Ice and Fire) which jumps from character to character. By giving me already defined personalties, they are put in another body, another scenario and then left to define the story with what I think would be a realistic reaction.

I'm sorry I can't exactly reveal the setting, I just like surprising people. However, people who I've revealed some spacifics of the settings, didn't really help by providing me with the definite characters in their attempt to fit it. Actually made me feel obligated to fit them im whole and proper, which sucks. If you're interested in spacifics of the intended setting, feel free to PM me.

[Xelnagahunter]

Eric's personality is pretty clear from his past and the like. So you can see where it goes from there. Moral choices are always a conundrum, but he will chose whichever does the greater good while sacraficing the lease of his soul while he can. Derringer will always step into harm's way to defend someone, even if he knows his odds of survival are slim.

[Guest]

What's the Era?

[Guest]

What's the Era?

Merethic Era

I could put Vira in, if you want.

[Guest]

....Ehhh. I really don't know. I'm iffy on that.