General Schwarzherz
Species: Unknown; formerly human
Age: 62
Height: 187 centimeters
Occupation: Very, Very Evil
Likes: Guns, darkness, cold, and just about anything else that can be used to scare people
Dislikes: Bright lights, hugs, "my accursed nemesis the sun"
Favortite food: "Wouldn't you like to know?"
General Schwarzherz was my first 'real' CoX character. You know, the first guy with an actual written backstory. I don't remember exactly where the all details came from, as the sources were many and spread far and wide, but eventually the parts came together into some amalgamated Lord Darkity Dark who couldn't care less of what other people thought about him using guns instead of evil staves of necromancy in his ongoing quest to destroy all life.
However, that's not where our story begins. Oh no, the General's career goes back much further than that: Schwarzherz came about in CoV beta, and he looked quite a bit different than he does today. In fact, I do believe he's the only character of mine whose appearance has changed significantly. Schwarzherz used to be just some human dude in standard urban camouflage, with nice living skin - even hair - out to make life nonexistent for everyone else. Back in those days, he even used traps instead of murky darkness and evil magic.
The inspiration for this first version was likely my frequent contact with the US military, and probably my good friend Ravceb joining their ranks. Through him I personally met more and more of the disgruntled grunts, and we soon found ourselves at one shooting range or another, constantly discussing 'God and the World' - in other words, everything that was wrong with this world in the past and present and should be fixed, but all the schemes that'd actually work were too crazy or contrived to actually pull off.
But times changed, and with the beta server wipe went the first incarnation of the good General. It would be a long time before he'd rear his ugly head again, but he did finally surface once more; after I'd gotten my first 'live' villain to 40. You know, before they raised the level cap in CoV.
So there I was, contemplating on the creation of my second villainous fellow, and from out of nowhere came the memory of General Schwarzherz to savagely smack me for my inattentiveness to it! Well now, who could resist such a convincing proposition? I immediately went to work creating the General once more, but as I said, it had been quite some time, and something just felt...off.
I mean, I'd played traps now, and sure it had been fun, but now I found myself craving something more classical and sinister. Lucky for me, there was dark miasma, practically begging to be played. 'Why not?' I asked myself, and since I couldn't find an answer to satisfy me, a wielder of darkness the General became. Of course, I couldn't have a General without an army, so the mercenaries were there to stay.
Schwarzherz received a costume upgrade as well, changing from the standard human soldier gone evil and awry to a twisted being of malevolence and darkness that couldn't stand so much as the light of day. With glowing red eyes hidden beneath a pitch-black hood, the new General entered the Rogue Isles donning a suit of powered armor with the characteristic marks of nocturnal maritime operations camouflage - except for the black hood, of course.
So there he was, my soldier gone wicked, but now that his appearance had gotten a makeover, it only seemed fair that his story - what little there was of it; yes, 'soldier gone wicked was about it at the time - did as well. But what would explain so much darkness and evil, and just general hatred toward all living things, while at the same time being well mannered and eloquent like a traditional mastermind should? Sure, there were plenty of explanations, but I wanted something truly evil, something with classic nuances while at the same time standing out of the crowd.
Thankfully, luck favored me once more, as at this time a few very pivotal things happened within my life - and before I knew it, Schwarzherz wasn't only possible and vaguely outlined, but standing right there like a block of solid neutronium.
He'd have been a Nazi - but a good one. Like the ones who were just generally shot when they said anything. Of course, that wasn't enough; oh no. Now I had to twist this good fellow in a world of hatred and ruin to my own sinister ends. So he fell into a world even worse - a parallel Terra so full of darkness even the atmosphere was rife with evil and hatred, a being of terrible sentience constantly attempting to kill and consume any living thing within its reach.
But no, he wouldn't die there - only almost. At the very last moment, a denizen of this world would discover the wayward and dying human and help the man back to his feet...by possessing what was left of his body and smothering all the good that was left in his being into permanent and utter extinction. General Schwarzherz was now the very definition of evil, pure and complete.
Now I had a true terror loose upon this virtual world, and I have to say nothing was ever quite the same. Schwarzherz hasn't changed since then - after all, there wasn't any further need - and has since been a steady figure wherever there existed a need for a classic source of age-old evil with a modern twist.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((Can we post the inspiration behind our characters, too, Devious?))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Yeh. That's the idea. 
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Okay, the Inspiration for Randall Grey and much of Grey's Army is, get this: stuffed animals.
When I was a kid, I had this Gund bear that, whenever it got a hole in it, I would stuff with pillow stuffing and just made the bear extra fat (and huggable!). Over the years, after all the kicks, dog-chewings, excessive hugs, tosses across the room and various other brands of torment that only a child who truly loves his teddy bear can deliver, Gundy (My dad named the bear with a mispronunciation of the company name, "Gun-D") wound up taking on the appearance of an animal ready for (and had been through) war.
Subsequently, Charline Daring-Grey is based off my mother. She takes her appearance more from my mom than the plush beaver (which was my first stuffed animal, actually), fortunately. My mom's seen the character and has chuckled at it.
When I was in the Marines I was introduced to webcomics, and sometimes I doodle characters of my own. Since I'm absolutely atrocious at drawing people, I tried to draw the only thing that I could make look reasonably decent.
I haven't tried publishing anything about it, but I do have one of my attempts posted on my DeviantArt page. Yeah, I know. Surprise, surprise.
As I was drawing the characters, I realized that one of my main characters, I couldn't use the name "Gundy." One, I liked the company too much to make this violent and foul-mouthed bear use them as his namesake, and two, they'd probably get mad at me (and I couldn't stand the idea). So, I named him after my dad, since Gundy's personality was, rather directly, based off him.
So, that was the conception of Randall Grey.
Cedric (a white Gund Snuffles bear about the same size as Gundy) is based off my older brothers and cousins. Even if I hadn't been in the Marines, he would have been (they just have that reputation, you know?). He does whatever the Hell he wants with no regard for the consequences. The only concern he really has is that everybody's having as much fun as him...
Sarah (a tiny white Snuffles Bear and so freaking adorable you just have to hug it) is somewhat based on my sister, but she's also based on a childhood friend of mine whom her human appearance is largely based on.
Roland was based off a zoo bear that my brother and I just fell in love with. He just looked like a tiny blob of pudge that needed to be hugged. He became our fourth favorite stuffed animal overnight. He started as the eldest son of Sarah (who was 25 at the time of my brother's and my storyline at the time, but I tossed that out the window when I made the concepts for my webcomic). Thinking I needed a character to embody the sort of person I wish I was in highschool, Roland became a stoic, understanding individual. The only time he ever loses his cool is when someone says anything disparaging about his sister or is being obtuse to a fault (such as when the offensive line refused to cover the new quarterback, Joe Durnan), and it's only for as long as it takes to get the message across.
The Durj family weren't originally, nor ever were, stuffed animals and are actually the oldest characters from my tormented mind. They started out as hand puppets, in that they were just my brother and I manipulating our hands into "bird shapes" and opening and closing our hands as we talked. Nester wound up embodying me as the observer (though his City of Heroes personality is much more proactive). He also wound up taking the brunt of the physical abuse as a teenager, but he returned, punch-for-punch and kick-for-kick, everything he received.
Kip stayed pretty much the same. He was tough-as-nails at inception, and never really changed. Sheldon started out as his twin brother, but I figured he would work better elsewhere.
Zeke has been the same ever since my brother and I generated him. He's an ideal father, strong enough to beat up any other dad and level-headed enough to handle raising two boys on his own.
So, the characters I have in-game are much different from their original forms, but that's the inspiration behind them.
----------
The Brutal Warriors Order are based off my friends, my brother, me, and a spat of backyard wrestling we did while in high school. Like many others, we laughed at the other idiots who did it at the time, but one day, after playing backyard football after a day of snowdrifts, we started slamming each other in the eight-feet-deep ditch that was now so full of snow it was level with the road.
Shortly after having fun doing power bombs, body slams, frog splashes and elbow drops, most of us retired for the afternoon. We were probably twenty minutes into relaxing in the "Simms" house when "Draven Erickson" realized his cousin, "King Slater" and my brother "Ragin' James" weren't around. We went outside to see if they needed help with something and saw that they were choreographing their own little match.
After that, we tried to make it a weekly event. We even built a ring, a staging area, and videotaped ourselves beating the tar out of each other. Sometimes stunts didn't work, sometimes we had equipment malfunctions (the turnbuckles had a nasty habit of popping off the ring posts until we wired them to their hooks).
The characters Project Soultaker, Project Whirlwind, and Psycho13 are based off my characters in that time. I had alt-itis at an early age...
Soultaker and Whirlwind's personalities are their own at this point, though. Psycho13 is largely how I remember myself back in high school.
----------
The rest of my characters I make up largely on the fly, but Agent Wyld is supposed to be me, now, and even he's run away from me a little (I'm not that bulked up).
Blizzard Front is basically Sub Zero in terms of how I think about him as I play, but he's supposed to be based off the current attitudes and behaviors of my friends. Ashen Roast, his best friend, is the converse of a lot of that.
Snuggle Purr is a catgirl. I figure everybody tries to make a catgirl or some other kind of anthropomorphic at some point. I figured this would be an interesting twist to the concept, since she's highly affectionate, but explodes in spikes. It's not uncontrollable (she actually has superb control over her powers), but it's kind of nifty to see this cute, shapely, orange and fuzzy girl suddenly explode in spikes when shouting "Hug me!"
I just wish I could fight the urge to scrub my eyes out with bleach every time I play as her.
Mider Caid is my idea for a wizard, although this is a far younger version of him than I've conceived before. My other iterations of the character (in my mind) usually involved a wiry old man with most of his hair missing (indeed, it hangs from his head in clumps of strands). I don't really have a use for the character except I just really like the name.
----------
Finally, the Air Guard named officers are all the last names of Marines I worked with or under the command of while I was a Marine. Flight Officer MacAuliffe is named after one of my old roommates (poor guy only knew me while my mind was still in transition, but he helped to ease me to a much more stable state). Captain Sonnethavilay is named after one of my favorite officers to work for. Finally, Captain Rachek is named after a Master Gunnery Sergeant in my last unit who would celebrate a promotion with a headbutt to the collar (ramming the points of the new chevrons deep into the clavicle).
Captain Carter is actually a unique character with no basis. I think he's just every action hero rolled into one, including Clint Eastwood's stoic Bill Munney from Unforgiven for his attitude.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
So where've you been getting the inspiration for these kinds of threads, eh Devious?
*steals Schwarzherz's style*
Toy Dispenser/Solid Shot
Species: Android
Age: 4/10(?)
Height: Exactly 7 ft.
Occupation: Mercenary, sometimes hero/Hero, former security droid
Likes: Information, knowing things, friends, beating the crap out of thing/Friends, jokes, porn, his photo gallery
Dislikes: People in general, High muckety muck metahumans/Boring stuff, The higher ups, villains
Favorite food: "...why the hell are you asking me that?"/"Dude, you're an idiot."
Why write about these two at the same time? Easy, they both come from the same inspiration: Me.
My writing teachers always told me that people write best about themselves or what they've done so I decided that my main hero and villain would effectively be different aspects of myself translated into CoX and given awesome super powers. But let's talk about Solid first, since he was first, though not completely.
My first hero was actually a fire/fire tanker named Khellendros IIc; but it wasn't much fun to play him and a friend of mine suggested blasters, so off I went to make Solid Shot. The inspiration for his name actually came from a weapon in BattleTech, the autocannon, which could fire either solid ammunition or cluster rounds. Since I liked the idea of shooting people in a game where people get 'arrested', the name Solid Shot just seemed to fit. It also helped that my first couple of names had already been taken. >_>
Solid was a hell of a lot more fun than Khell and I got him to 20 something before I really started deciding how to make him me. I came up with a background for him that I found amusing, but his personality never really evolved much until I had created Toy Dispenser and leveled that [censored] up to 40.
Toy Dispenser started out in the CoV Beta as the Toy Box and looked exactly the same as he does now. His personality at that point wasn't really anything either, as I was too busy trying to actually play the game to think of such things. But once the Beta ended and I cooked up Toy for real (Now Dispenser because someone else got Box. <_< For which I'll thank her, actually.) I started thinking about who he should be.
I decided to divy myself up between the two of my main robots. Solid would be the more extroverted me, the one who would much rather have a damn good time or beat up some bad guys than sit around talking about emotions or some such. Not that he wasn't capable, it's just he didn't really enjoy it. That's also when I came up with more complications to Solid's programming in order to make him as justifiably erratic as I could. Solid also got my teenage obsession with porn, which made him a bit creepy, really.
Solid likes rock music and anything with a damn good beat.
Toy got all my more cerebral attributes. A love for knowing things (specifically about people), my fascination with robots, and of course he got to do all the things I wish I could do except for this little thing called a conscience. Over time he's evolved a bit as I liked his concept so much that I decided to really flesh him out, but as his core he's remained as much as me as I am.
Toy likes operas and music without words.
Hmmm.... And at this point my thoughts on this topic collide in a rather large and interesting jumble or words and concepts. I could go on about why I made their backgrounds as I did or why I made them robots instead of real people; but then I'd have to go on about what a real person really is and I don't actually have the time for that.
One more thing I'll add that made making these two guys interesting and effective: My constant analyzing of everything I do. It's annoying, but it lets me parse things out quite effectively.
Oh right, and they both share one big thing in common. The desire (and capability) to [intercourse] someone's [poop] up if they [intercourse] with my friends. >=3
Next time: Archlich!
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Why, my do-not-open door, of course. Do you live in a cave? 
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
But if you aren't supposed to open it, how do they get out?
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Curiosity has killed many, many cats, Khell.
Humans fare little better, and this is the result when we do.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Oh, that's an easy one - the door opens when I'm not looking. Then when I look, it's closed again, and whatever came out is in the status of "Theft - runawayyy!" prompting me to chase after it, during which time I am of course not looking, so something else comes out.
See? Simple.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Curiosity hasn't killed this human yet!
It hasn't killed Toy yet, either, though god knows he's testing it.
So... Why don't ya try shoving a closet in front of the door? Though I have to admit I'd miss the random fun things you come up with.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Because it ate the closet.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Buy an undigestable closet.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
It's a door, Khell. It does not need to digest something to eat it.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Interestingly enough, I use what I call "original cliches" as my inspirations for characters.
Huh??
Basically, I think of what would probably be a cliche superhero origin base and develop it, but not one that I've personally read about before. You know...something that sounds like it'd be thoroughly cliche and straight out of a pulp comic, but one you might not ever be able to say "oh! that's just like x comic!"
Original Cliche.
I don't draw from any real world or comic inspirations and try to at least partially actively seek to steer clear of stories I've read.
Funny, but true, right after CoH came out, I made a kat/regen scrapper. An albino mutation that some called a "tall elf" who aged slowly, could regenerate, and so on...took up the katana and fought off vampiric 5th Column during WW II and afterwards. I'd not ever really heard of, or watched/read the Blade comics and movies until after I'd made and played Bladewraith. After I did...? I stopped playing the character. I felt like I was somehow butchering his story, in a way...
At any rate...there it is...
[ QUOTE ]
It's a door, Khell. It does not need to digest something to eat it.
[/ QUOTE ]
Then might I suggest bad-tasting woods?
Suffice it to say, Maple and Sweetgum are not first choices for this. I would stick to stuff that even termites and beavers flee from.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Gunslinger Pete
Species: Human
Age: 44
Height: 198 centimeters
Occupation: Theoretical Physicist
Likes: Shooting stuff, lazying about, shooting stuff, teaching people things, shooting stuff, pursuing the great mysteries of theoretical physics, shooting stuff, reading a good book, and...shooting stuff
Dislikes: Math, forgetting things, people who think they know better all the time for irrelevant reasons
Favorite food: Steak
Dr. Peter Guggenheim sprang from my mind during a random bout of thought concerning the topic, "What would I be like if I was a perfectly normal human worm-baby?" I blame Zim, myself. Well, you guys know how well that turned out - poor normal went out the airlock, and some demented madman stayed behind.
Still, he was a likeable madman; the kind of guy who's just fun to hang around until he starts thinking about something complex and won't shut up about it until he finds a reasonably satisfying conclusion. It then dawned upon me that Pete had become the scientist in me, more concerned with why something worked than particularly how to make it work. He found enjoyment in simply the fact that the universe is a pretty cool place and deserves to be appreciated for its coolness.
And firearms. He found great enjoyment in firearms as well. So along with the scientist side of me had come the gun nut aspect.
Now, this happened quite a while ago, but even so the actual creation process took place surprisingly quick: about an hour in the CoH costume designer. By the end of that, I'd suddenly brought to life an ex-Malta Special Qualification Marksman who in addition to being a gun-toting physicist also happened to be a Texan.
Why? To be honest, I'm not quite sure. All I know is that out of all the places I've been to, Texas just kind of grew on me. I'd never been sure if I belonged somewhere, and I'm still not 100%, but if it's anywhere at all, then chances are overwhelmingly positive that it's Texas. I like the size of things (not everything, but a good many things are bigger in Texas, it's true), I like the people, and even the climate is hot enough to be to my liking for 2/3 of the year. It's just a great place, and I really feel comfortable there - so oddly enough, it would seem I've been a Texan all along and just never knew it. Go figure.
Malta was quite the obvious choice as well. For starters, who else would have the proper line of work for someone with such...um...unique qualifications? A Desert Eagle generally doesn't mix well with a particle accelerator, but thankfully the Malta Group has the good sense to look past such minor discrepancies.
Too bad their ideas weren't on par. So I decided Pete had quit; just like I would have had I found myself in such a situation. And just like I would have been, he ended up being quite sneaky and [WHOA! NOT A PLEASEANT IMAGE!], which quickly curbed any would-be rehiring efforts.
Pete's story somewhat stopped there for a while, partially because beyond this little scope here I had difficulty imagining life under these conditions - especially without my job! I mean, I can't really see myself ever doing anything else, and so the rock blocking my path there just kind of sat there and laughed.
Well, some time later I spoke about Pete with a friend of mine - and just as always, this friend delivered to me an insight like few others can even begin to muster. Chances are this was because this friend is just as much a madman as me, if not even a little bit more.
So Pete became a teacher, just like the professors here at my university. Okay, so maybe not 'just like'...hmmm, wait...'just like some of'. There. Dr. Fleck certainly has more than one thing in common with his fictional colleague.
Not only that, but at that time I'd already taught marksmanship at the academy for a while, and though I'd never considered doing that more than part-time, teaching really made perfect sense in the end. Funny how things work out sometimes, isn't it? Yep, the universe is a pretty cool thing.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Archlich
Species: Undead human
Age: Over 2000
Height: 5' 4"
Occupation: Mage
Likes: Magic, taking over the world, people who respect him, magic
Dislikes: Heroes, technology
Favorite food: Can't remember any more
Have I ever mentioned that I like cliches? Well I do, a lot, and that's how Archlich was born. Of course, like many of my characters, my brother actually came up with the initial idea of a lich character and left me to fill in everything else. He also designed the costume, but I had some input in that as well, leading to Archlich's distinctive runic armor and random little crown.
I suppose one of these days I'll have to explain the crown.
So anyway, Archlich was made to be the cliche kind of villain that always wants to take over the world but can never manage it. He'd also have a love/hate relationship with technology like many other old wizards, dispising tech because it's new and different but also willing to work with it in order to reach his goals. Amusingly enough, I consider Archlich to be equivilent of an end boss from a Final Fantasy game. Imagine Archie with one wing and laugh with me.
But of course I couldn't leave Archlich as just a cliche as that would annoy me, so I started fleshing out his character starting with his past. Having decided earlier that Archlich was a holdover from old Mu, I needed to nail down just why he had done so. It needed to be something simple but poignant, so I chose the age-old fear that everyone on Earth feels every now and then. Archlich was growing old and he didn't want to die. To that extent he made an agreement with an Oranbegan death mage and proceeded to sell out his people in order to become the first lich in all creation. He considers all the others come afterward to be pale imitations of his perfection.
Anyway, so I also decided that Archlich couldn't remember much from his old life, allowing me to neatly sidestep any problems with conflicting in-game accounts of the Mu/Oranbegan era. He's also tried to take over the world five times now, losing each attempt but covering each one up completely in the process.
Let's see, I'm losing steam again, so let's hit on Archie's personality before I go. Arrogant, full of himself, condecending, prideful, all the kind of things you'd imagine a centuries old mage being. I mean, he's apparently unlocked the primal secrets of magic and wields the essence of magic itself as a weapon with out need for translating its power through spells. If Archlich was in some other universe were metahumans were a bit less prolific, like Marvel, he'd give Dr. Doom a run for his money, I expect. If not through sheer power than through the size of their egos.
Archlich's one redeeming quality, as much as he has one, might be his odd code of honor. I haven't completely worked it out yet, but aspects of it involve standing firmly by ones allies until they prove themselves unworthy and a kind of chilvaric outlook on duels. Not that he'd admit to such a similarity, of course.
I only wish corruptors were more fun to play so that I could be Archlich more often.
Next up: Lord Netharak or Brutish Ghoul! Vote now or wait for me to make up my mind!
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
[ QUOTE ]
I'd never been sure if I belonged somewhere, and I'm still not 100%, but if it's anywhere at all, then chances are overwhelmingly positive that it's Texas. I like the size of things (not everything, but a good many things are bigger in Texas, it's true), I like the people, and even the climate is hot enough to be to my liking for 2/3 of the year.
[/ QUOTE ]
Does this mean Devious likes me best?
Why yes, Synapse, yes I am. And so are many others. You would like to hear them, you say? Indeed, I would enjoy such quite a bit as well. So how about it then?
We've written backstories, rationales, prequels, origins, explanations, summations, outlines, inlines of the online, and so much more, but what about the inspirations?
Come now, you can't tell me that there character just appeared out of thin air one day and then just stayed that way. There had to have been some manner of catalyst, some sort of idea that grew into what your character(s) is/are today. So tell us! Where did your character come from? How was he/she/it created? Not within your mind - but within the physical world. What did you, the author, the creator, progress through to breathe life into your creation?
After all, this is a game about people. No, not the high-flying spandex-wearing ones on the screen - the ones behind the monitors and keyboards, mice and cheese, thinking thoughts and exchanging ideas.
I'll show you what I mean.
Observe!
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters