2 posts tagged “character creation influences”

The question I answered for my character Brianna yesterday was "what sources do you use as inspiration for your roleplay characters?"

I did not take the time to address Marrow, as the post was already quite long just covering Brianna. So, let's get down to it

Marrow: This character was a little more difficult for me to create, believe it or not. You see, if you take a look at her bio on Wikipedia, you'll see that an awful lot of her history had to be trashed for XMR. On XMR, Weapon X, the Morlocks, Gene Nation, alternate dimentions, Sentinals and SHIELD do not exist (not to mention that events mentioned in her background such as M-Day and whatnot have not occurred), and therefore most of that history would have to be nixed and replaced with something more fitting for the game.

So, her bio was completely scrapped and re-written by me. I felt that someone with bones protruding out of their flesh would probably be rather mentally disturbed and from all the images I ever saw of her, she seemed a little... unhinged, to say the least. As such, I used that as a basis for writing the character's background and just 'rolled with it'.

Going on the premise from the second X-Men movie that the mutant X gene was inherited from the father's side, I wrote up that her father was actually a mutant, hence where her own gene came from. Without going into too many details about my character's history (because I'd rather that came out via RP, honestly), I'll just say that it was because of her father's actions coupled with the fact that he was a mutant that her mother reacted so negatively to her when the bones started to spring forth from her back.

The comic snippets I found of her on the web showed her to be rather flamboyant, rambunctious, witty, sarcastic and not always the most appropriate. People seemed to let her get away with a fair amount, however, though out of context, it was hard to tell why they did in the comics or if she always got away with being so bombastic. While this was a neat idea, I wanted something a little more rough and ragged. I wanted Marrow to be more mentally disturbed, more gruff, more stand-offish at times, but also someone who really did, deep down inside, crave human contact (not necessarily physical but to just have a need for someone to talk to occasionally) -- but this part, I wanted buried and buried very deeply. This was not going to be my 'touchy feely' character. She was going to be prickly (figuratively and literally). She was going to be tough. She was going to be volatile.

And she was going to be about as subtle as a MAC truck. (As a RL friend of mine says, "Subtle. Like a falling anvil."

Once more, the character Sonja Blue stuck out in my head. Not so much the character of Sonja herself, as I did with Brianna, but the demon within Sonja. Kind of the alter ego was what I drew upon for Marrow. (Funny how the same books inspired the same two characters.) I liked the idea that the demon was dangerous, unpredictable and surfaced without warning and sometimes with very little provocation. This is how I wanted Marrow to be; someone who could snap at the drop of the hat.

Granted, I didn't want her snapping at everything or she'd just be unplayable. So around trusted individuals, she's calm, trusting, though still guarded to a degree. But she's still quick to anger if people aren't careful. Allow me to give an example. In a scene that happened maybe a month ago (which I don't think I can talk about the details too openly yet, so forgive me for being vague), this hair-trigger temper was shown when she almost killed a man -- because he hurt a trusted friend badly. She just lashed out with little concern about the consequences, what stabbing him might do to him or what others might think. All she could think about was neutralizing the enemy and the enemy was the one who hurt her friend and teammateThankfully, friends, allies and teammates are given a little bit of leeway over those who she sees as a threat or enemy.

Considering her time on the streets, I figure she started lashing out, fighting back and protecting those who were pushed to the edges of society -- the marginalized, if you will. This included herself, but others who maybe didn't judge her as readily as some might.

For this, I have the Punisher to thank. Both version of the Punisher, in fact. Now, granted, her background is nothing compared to what Frank Castle experiences. It isn't that which inspired me. It was the line from the first one that Dolph Lundgren delivers in a monologue:

Where is justice? Where is punishment? Or have you already answered, have you already said to the world here is justice, here is punishment, here, in me.

Okay, a little bit melodramatic, maybe, and out of context, but I love that little monologue and this line just seemed fitting. I liked the idea of a vigilante who was out to right wrongs. However, I've taken it and twisted it with this character. She isn't righting wrongs with the X-Men. She's righting wrongs with the Brotherhood. Or wrongs as Magneto sees them and dictates them. She has been persecuted so long because of her obvious mutation that she completely buys into 'the Cause' and has become one of his Acolytes on XMR.

But I digress.

Music is easy when it came to inspiration for Marrow. I saw her as one who was hardened by years on the street, years of persecution and attack against her person (usually unprovoked) and by one who had had enough and was ready to fight back. In truth, there was a combination of music and a movie which I thought of when writing up the character of Marrow, who has long since done her best to leave her past and her human name behind her.

Falling Down was a 1993 movie which starred Michael Douglas who portrayed an unemployed man who grew increasingly frustrated with the wrongs of society and how broken people seemed until he finally went "postal" and lashed out at them all. He became a vigilante because of a chain of events which continued to batter him down. The idea of a series of events creating a vigilante made sense for me when it came to writing Marrow's background. I really felt as though it could help shape her identity and make her ripe for the Brotherhood -- and yes, I began writing her with the concept of her joining the Brotherhood stuck in the back of my mind.

There is a CD which samples the movie Falling Down in several of the songs, so it seemed fitting that it would further influence me while writing up Marrow's character. Front Line Assembly's "Millennium" is hardcore industrial and very angry in nature. It's rough around the edges, harsh and offers no apologies -- just as I wanted Marrow.

In fact, I have a few of their songs in her playlist on my iPod and computer, as they just seemed fitting. Other groups also float around in my head for Marrow such as Nine Inch Nails, gODHEAD (specifically "I Hate Today" as a song), Pop Will Eat Itself (specifically the "Dos Dedos Mis Amigos" CD), Fear Factory, Front 242 and many others. (One of these days, I'll post her playlist once it's a little more full. There is also "18 Wheeler" by Pink on the list of inspirations.)

I'm sure there were more inspirations, but those were the big ones. If I think of more, I'll post about them, but these are the ones that stand out in my memory the most. It should also be noted that her powers and skills were scaled back considerably, too, as she was nigh invincible as-written for the comics. She's still quite a powerhouse, but she's not invulnerable.

I think this question came up on the XMR discussion forums at one time, but I really didn't want to spam people there. As this is my blog, I figured that here is as good a place as any for me to 'spam away'.

The question was something to the effect of "what sources do you use as inspiration for your roleplay characters?"

The easy answer is "many places". But the easy answer isn't what I'm going for today.

Let's look at Brianna on XMR first.

Brianna Flannery (aka Nexus): She was easy for me to create. I had the character concept stuck in my head for years and years and years; probably as long as I had been reading comic books. Someone recently made the connection between her power and that of the character Bishop, but in fact (believe it or not), I had the concept in my head long before I knew that Bishop even existed. Don't get me wrong; I think Bishop is a cool, kick-ass character, but sadly, he was not one of my initial inspirations for Brianna. Granted, my idea is far from original and may have been inspired by any number of things I had read in comics, seen on tv, etc. I simply cannot pinpoint it down to one item or thing.

 

As for the actual character of Brianna, the actress was easy to peg. I saw a look in a movie that I simply fell in love with for a character concept and went with it. Kate Beckinsale in Underworld was a perfect model for what I wanted Brianna to look like, with the addition of piercings, tattoos and blue hair near her face. Yeah, I wanted a slightly more punked-up image of Selene. She was hot, bad-ass and just the image I was going for.

Unfortunately, I ran into personality problems with Bri in her first incarnation (Brianna v1.0... *snickers*). She was too shy, too naive, too sheep-like. The next incarnation was much more bad-ass, bold, brazen... a bit more fun than Selene in Underworld but able to hold her own in attitude and in a fight if necessary. This time around, she knows what she wants and she knows how to get it.

But this version isn't just as two-dimensional as all that either. In a way, believe it or not, some of her personality comes from my brother, as odd as that might sound. He's bold and speaks his mind. He means what he says. But there is a part of him that is rabidly protective of those he cares about. (In truth, I'm a bit like this but I'm not always as blunt or forward as my brother is -- some of it is a family trait, you see.) Bri is much the same in this respect.

And finally, music-wise, the inspiration for her is a combination of hardcore industrial and alternative music coupled with hardcore techno and dance music.

 I can't pin down any one particular song, though there's a list of CDs that likely had something to do with it.

One of these days when my playlists are a little more full for both of my characters, I will share list list off of my iPod here in this space as well as some lyrics from some of the more 'key' pieces.

The only other inspiration I might have drawn on for Brianna could have been from books that I read. I read a lot of vampire novels. I have been reading about and researching the vampire myth since I was ten years old (I'm 32 at the time of this posting, so do the math). To say that they had no bearing on Bri would be a lie. Sure, she's not a vampire. She doesn't suck blood. She isn't allergic to garlic. Sure, she's sensitive to sunlight but that's just due to her sensitive, pale Irish skin. Heh.

But there's just something rather empowering about a female character who kicks ass and takes numbers just because she can. It relates back to Selene from Underworld, too. However, there is a series of books that I can probably tie in here, as well. It started with a character name Sonja Blue in a book called Sunglasses After Dark by Nancy A. Collins. I think this was the first book I ever read where the 'hero' was a woman and where the hero was actually more of an anti-hero than anything else.

And really, this time around, Brianna is more of an anti-hero, in my humble opinion. Someone recently pointed out to me on the game that Brianna is almost the anti-X-Man character, though she was the first X-Man on the game. She smokes, drinks, gets tattoos and piercings, has sex, swears (sometimes at or in front of the students), rebels against the rules from time to time, and threatens the X-kids that she'll "kick their asses" if they call her "ma'am", "Miss Flannery", "Miss", "Teach" or any variety of other teacher-related names (though she is the music instructor at Xavier's school), or if they do a variety of other things which she deems inappropriate. Sure, she's still on the good guys' team, but I guess if she were a Dungeons & Dragons character, she'd probably be Lawful Chaotic.

So as you can see, Brianna had quite a wide variety of media influencing her creation. She was probably also at least 15+ years in the making, if you can believe it.

Marrow is another story but I think she also deserves a post of her own.