Ethnic Characters - Tell Me About 'Em

I've noticed, in my time, a good number of characters defined by their ethnicity. More than a few Soviet characters (while 'Soviet' might not be a strict ethnicity, it calls one to mind), Native Americans, Irish, etc. I'm really speaking more of ones where their ethnicity is a major part of the character -- someone dressed in white with the red Japanese 'Rising Sun' symbol on their chest as opposed to an ice blaster where you just happened to use one of the Asian faces.

Do you have any relation to the ethnicity of your character? Did you just think it fit a concept? Anything particularly interesting about how you arrived at them?

Just to get the ball rolling:
Polish Princess: (Poland) A hero whose mother, a grad student with the Jagiellonian University, died after exposure to radiation leaking from a recovered Nazi science project while PP was still in the womb. I am mostly Polish by ethnicity (live in the Chicago area though, 3rd Generation) and enjoy the cultural aspects: food, traditions, etc. The name itself was derived from a nickname for my mother when she'd start getting overly cute.

Bad Czech: (Czech Republic) A petty thief and counterfeiter from Prague who gained his strength from a serum discovered in an abandoned Soviet lab while on the run from Russian mafia goons. What bits of me aren't Polish are Bohemian. The punny name for this villain comes from a favorite joke around the family. "What do you call a Bohemian getting tossed out of a bar? A bounced Czech!" Wokka, wokka, wokka... right? I'll admit that while Polish Princess was born from a bit of ethnic pride, Bad Czech was really born out from the joke.

Tally-Ho: (England) An English TA/A defender in a classic fox-hunting outfit. I have no connection to the English in an ethnic sense but I saw I could make a snazzy fox-hunting outfit in the character creator. You can't see her and not think of England but she's pure concept.

Pachamama: (Peru) My wife is from Peru and partially of indigenous descent. She played with the character creator once, trying to make an Inca woman and got frustrated. Later I decided to give it a shot and created Pachamama, an Inca priestess who was held in suspended animation by the earth when Pizarro's armies began their conquest of the Empire and was later released to help against the misguided Devouring Earth. While I personally have no connection to Peru, my wife was extremely pleased with my results

I'm sure there's some great stories out there.

La Bella Mafia - Thugs/Pain MM: Maria Donaluchi was wife to the Don of a powerful mafia family and very proud of her position and her husband. In public Maria was arm candy; the docile little wife to the powerful crime lord. In private she was his top advisor and confidant. She was well satisfied with her life until the fateful evening when, while in a posh restaurant with her husband, he was gunned down by the Marcone family. Maria had been born a mutant, with strong powers to heal nearly any injury, but the damage was too sudden, too catastrophic to save him. Consumed with a cold need for vengeance, Maria made it crystal clear to all her husband's Leiutenants that SHE was in charge now. Once she had consolidated her authority, she began making the moves that would not only avenge her dead husband, but ensure her family's place as most powerful of the mafia clans.

Shadow's Secret - Ninja/Storm MM: Hakami Nakatori was the eldest daughter of the notorious leader of the Nakatori Yakuza family. To the world her father was known only as the Shadow and he raised his two daughters to take over his empire one day. While her younger sister explored new directions for the family to go in the world of science, Hakami studied the ancient magics and martial arts of their heritage. Soon she was training her own enforcers and harnessing the family storm magic much as had her father before her. When her younger sister ran away from home following a heated argument with their father, Hakami stayed behind to continue her training. After several years she turned up in America, seeking her sister's location. Their father had died and now it was time to decide which way the crime family would direct their future.

Poisoned Lotus - Ninja Blade/Ninjutsu Stalker: Hidori Suda was only four years old when her family was killed in grisly, public fashion by the Nakatori Yakuza family. Her father had opposed the family in their extortion schemes and been made an example of in the public square along with Hidori's mother and older brother. Hidori was taken by the Nakatori leader, an enigmatic figure known only as the Shadow. She became a gift to Hakami; the daughter of Shadow. Hakami had been trained in the arts of ninjutsu and the family storm magic and trained Hidori in the martial arts as well. Despite the reasons for her servitude, despite being little more than a slave, Hidori developed incredible bonds of loyalty for her teacher and companion, becoming her personal assassin and most trusted companion. When Hakami travelled to the Rogue Isles to increase her family's influence there; Hidori was quick to follow. The Lotus blossom had always been a symbol of rebirth, but Hidori's resurrection had been into darkness.

Superior Symbiosis - Earth/Electric Dominator: When Hatami Hitachi had agreed to accepting a higher position within his Yakuza family, he had not realized what he was getting into. It had seemed easy and painless enough at first, they merely made a minor incision in the skin covering his forehead, placed a small sliver of crystal there, then sewed him back up. It didn't even hurt once the local anesthetic had worn off. At least, not at first. The crystal, however, was magical in nature and started to grow. It dug its roots inwards, burrowing into his skull in an effort to reach his frontal lobe beneath. The Yakuza boss known only as the Shadow ordered Hatami strapped down so he wouldn't attempt to dig the growing, living crystal from his own skull. Once it reached his brain though, a strange symbiosis began to occur. He found he could commune with the crystal, could command its powers. He now had control over rock and could harness his body's own electro-chemical generation to devastating results.

Blood and Honor - Electric/Storm Corruptor: Narute Nakatori was long since dead; ancient samurai wizard of the Nakatori family. It was he who had originated the storm magic that was their family's heritage and the reason for its ascendancy. Upon his death he joined the family ancestors as a hero, having brought great unbounded honor to the Nakatori name. And so Narute watched, answering his descendants' prayers when they sought his advice and spending his afterlife caretaking the family honor. Then came World War II and Japan's great defeat; though his country had not known victory, his family had performed with great honor in their battles. It was post war that caused their downfall. The Nakatori family turned to crime, becoming a Yakuza gang. Narute's heart broke and he turned his face from them after millenia of watching. But he could not ignore them forever; Hakami, daughter of the Yakuza leader, summoned and enslaved him with his own storm magic. Bound by blood at the cost of his honor.

Tribe of One - Shield/War Mace Tank: The African tribe was of Zulu descent and rightly proud of its warrior heritage. Though the world grew older and more "civilized" around them, still the tribe maintained its traditions and adherence to the old ways. Ungasa was their best; even at a young age besting the most experienced of tribal warriors. He was being groomed for the position of chieftain and his future was assured. Then, the outside world intruded. The Rikti ship was off course, an early encounter with Earth's defending heroes had destroyed its guidance systems. When it landed upon the African plains it was to make repairs... The Rikti did not expect attack. The battle was short and fierce, the clubs and spears of the tribesmen no match for the armor and weapons of the Rikti. When Ungasa woke from his injuries it was to find himself the last surviving member of his tribe. Ungasa is dead. He sacrificed his Self in order to avenge his tribe. Ungasa is no more; now he is a Tribe of One.

KAOS-219 - Elec/Energy Brute: A genetically enhanced cyborg created in Soviet Russia in a series of experiments to create the perfect weapon. He was too perfect and quickly rebelled against his creators. Because the experiments destroyed much of his memory, his true identity has pretty much been lost.

Mistress Bloodwrath - Mercs/Pain Mastermind: A Russian mutant with powers over pain. She was part of an Eastern European terrorist group before arriving in the Rogue Isles. Very much unashamedly fashioned on the Baroness trope.

Lady Tsukira - Dual Blades/Reflexes Scrapper: Trained in the arts of combat, Lady Tsukira came to Paragon City to hunt down the supernatural entities that disgraced her family centuries ago in Japan.

Baron Ironfist - Assault Rifle/Thermal Corruptor: An aging German cyborg from World War II. He used to be in charge of assigning tasks to Germany's special forces in the war and had himself enhanced with cybernetic implants so he could live forever and stand toe to toe with metahumans in combat.

Unorthodox mention:
General Scythirus - Super Strength/Shield Brute: Scythirus is a fictional Persian nation of my own creation that I developed on a game called NationStates. Anyway, they had their own animated propaganda show called "The Adventures of General Scythirus" and he held a passing resemblance to a certain American comic book character that also had a military rank. So, naturally, with CoV, I....

I don't really have any characters defined by their ethnicity, but it's impossible for me to make someone who isn't British by birth. I, personally, speak with an incredibly inflated (and stereotypical...) accent and often slip it into during roleplay. Rather than deal with the problem of a slipping accent, I just roll with it.

Blonde-haired blue-eyed white American guy here, Russian in ancestry (to the best of my knowledge), but I have a great many "ethnic" characters anyway. Sometimes it's concept, other times an image popped into my head and I went with it.

- Dr. Particular, Ill/Rad. Dr. Lucas van Acker, born Rotterdam Netherlands. Black guy with glasses, bald. When I first started playing this game I was pretty into soccer/football/thebeautifulgame and a fan of Chelsea, particularly of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. It amused me to imagine him as a nuclear physicist slash children's show host, then I saw a movie with scenes shot in Rotterdam. A character was born.

- Retaliator, Dark/Kin Corruptor, who I've long planned to Go Rogue. A black girl, primarily because I wanted her with an obvious birthmark across her face, and also because that skin tone went really well with a periwinkle-colored Low Ponytail. True Neutral, can only harm those who intend to harm her or those she's decided to befriend.

- Mecha Wasp, Bots/Traps. She's black, and due to some racist and hot-headed (as in Fire Blaster) Longbow, was burned and framed as a Villain. The burn scars have mostly healed but the psychological ones are still pretty fresh. She'll probably Go Rogue too, as she's mostly succeeded in hunting down and destroying the specific Longbow who ruined her life. Power Armor for a main outfit, her second outfit has a distinct Zero Suit Samus look.

- Ason Svivati, currently a Brute but will Go Rogue as a Fire/Earth Dominator. She's Egyptian and very dark-skinned. She and Masrefah hate each other (long story), but she's the more good-aligned.

- Masrefah, Mind/Fire Dom. Egyptian, light-skinned. Evil through and through.

- Blood of the Sacred, Mind/Storm 'troller. Malay, ex-cop.

- Blood of the Damned, Demon/Pain. Filipina, or Pinay, not sure which is appropriate honestly, it's hard to tell just from reading...she was born in Manila, anyway. BotS's villainous counterpart.

- B'riyah, Fire/Storm 'troller. Turkish, killed in an earthquake, brought back as the hand of an unnamed god to smite evil.

- Agent Zhang, Pistols/Energy. Chinese-German, SDU cop from Hong Kong. There's no official title called Agent for HK police, but it sounded more actiony than the real ones.

- Wind Monk, Wind Melee (i.e. recolored DM)/Shield Scrapper. Another Milay, although the only clue is her name (Marina Asohan). Magical monk, part of an order that hunts down and "cleanses" corrupted mages. Yes, she faces a lot of CoT. Yes, I yell "Soul STEAL!" a lot when playing her.

- I have THREE Kenyans: Katili (Night Widow), Majasusi (Claws/Will Scrapper), and Agenti (AR/Electric). The first two are sisters who hate each other, the third is your garden-variety cyber-enhanced one-woman-army.

And I have more too, but I've gone on too long as it is.

Helmut von Gunfire, my planned DP character corruptor/maybe-rogue-blaster. You can probably guess the stereotype from the name... he was inspired by a jumble puzzle where the word "Unforgiven" was jumbled as "VONGUNFIRE" and I instantly knew I needed to make that character.

My mother and sister are into the equestrian thing so I suppose that helps but if I showed someone a painting such as this, I don't think there's be much question about what country is being depicted. Good for you guys for finally making it illegal, though.

When I hear "England" I immediately think of Absolutely Fabulous and Young Ones.

Just one, Standing Horse, who is named for an actual Native American who claimed to have been on a flying saucer. Maybe he was. Maybe it gave him strange powers...

Although I do have some non-white characters, the only "ethnically" themed one is Bodhisattva, an Indian girl whose mutant powers were thought to be manifestations from the divine back in her native region. On Justice she's a Mind/Empathy Controller and on Virtue a Rad/Rad Defender. And no, I'm not Indian myself.

I created my Asian mastermind on Freedom, Saiphoon, influenced by the (probably stereotypical) literary concept of the Chinese opium lords in the Limehouse area of Victorian London.

I have Gen Sing, a healer I've not used in a while. He was created as a emp/dark defender to team with another player who has left the game. Gen Sing was initially created right after the first Asian outfits appeared in game, and was supposed to be a Chinese herbalist with dark abilities. As he progressed in the duo, I relied more heavily on his attack powers so I gave him another costume look that bore a bit of a resemblance to Bruce Lee as Kato.

Another defender is Sky Rider. His back story is as a rogue Comanche in the 1800s that was imprisoned and preserved through magic but eventually freed and given a second chance.

EDIT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zikar Ugh... are we really that well know for fox hunting abroad?

You've never spent time around American banks. lol. I support a ton of them as my job, and many (stodgy ones to my thinking) like to visually portray themselves as "solid" and here forever, by strong architecture, such as classical pillars, Federalist period furniture (which for some reason says "money") and brass decorations with English fox hunting prints. Lots of prints.

Running Fox- If you ask this native american where his bow and arrow is, he'll call you an offensive *censored* and shoot you with dual pistols because bullets are a lot faster than arrows.

I'm pretty bad in this regard. My ethnic characters have trouble deciding exactly what their ethnicity is typically, and it isn't helped that I often *forget* what their ethnicity is supposed to be, unless their costume is hilariously racist to the point that I cannot forget (such as my Green Clad Scottish Man who uses differently colored energy blasts to mimick all the colors of the rainbow.) I'm personally Native American, German, and French, but my family ranges all over the place in this regard. We live in the great melting pot, it's probably inevitable.

Yutolio - A 'European' assassin, though I didn't start him this way. I don't know that he even had a face when I first made him, being clad in black tactical clothing. it wasn't until his third costume design that I ran out of ideas and decided to give him a face, and then immediately decided that he was probably russian or german, I can't seem to decide which. I'm probably going to blame this decision on having played Grand Theft Auto IV for about two weeks prior, however. Worse, he's a pretty typical ninja... Which isn't really a 'European' thing, as far as I'm aware. His name comes from Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, which is what my Nu Mou whitemage was called... I'm not sure why that name stuck, but I felt like using it again, so there you go.

Miranda - My DP/Kin Corrupter is a Latin... Something. She's very brown at any rate. She used to work at a car dealership, but turned into a sort of vigilante when she got fed up with the politics of the Rogue Island, feeling that the citizens were basically shields to keep the place from being nuked into oblivion, and weren't really offered any sort of protection beyond 'don't kill them.' So she decided to just go kill Lord Recluse herself, which landed her on... 'The Destined Ones' list, much to her aggravation.

Her Latin ancestry really has nothing to do with anything, though. In fact, if I had to decide, she's really much more American than any character I have ever made, and I was originally attempting to stay away from overly patriotic characters, but she's jaded just enough for me to let her pass. Her name is meant to be ironic. In America, you have your 'Miranda Rights'; The Right to remain silent, get an attorney, etc. In the Rogue Islands, however, you really... Don't have much right to anything. She fights for the rights of the people, but kind of missed the whole 'government' thing, as she actively attacks Longbow as often as Arachnos, thinking any kind of control is a limitation on freedom.

In addition to this, her name is a slight nod to Shakespeare's 'Tempest', about a girl raised on an isolated island by her magician father. Only very slightly, I don't know that I'd consider my Miranda quite as innocent.

Agriope - She is modeled after an Eagle, yells a lot, and has psychic powers? She was meant to be my token 'let's try out wings' character, but I unwittingly made her very Native American looking with her high cheekbones and slanted eyes, and larger (but still feminine!) nose. Granted, I was *trying* to personify an eagle onto a woman's face, but it just sort of worked out that way. Perhaps my people simply look like birds, I don't know.

She was named Agriope because she uses a primarily Black and Yellow color scheme, which is similiar to the arachnid I stole the name for. Her 'clan' named her as such, because they have a great fear of these giant jumping spiders, which she routinely managed to destroy before going to Paragon to further prove herself. She's fighting to be the queen of her people or something, I don't remember.

"Lucky" - I don't actually have this character made, but his costume has been sitting in my saved folder for a few months now. I wanted to make an evil blaster, and I'm waiting for GR to do so. Basically, he looks like a slightly insane leprechaun, with a hook hand, and the ability to shoot rainbows at people. His story is likely going to be that he escaped from a 'facility' in Tyrant's City and eventually dimensioned his way to the Rogue Islands to be free of his captors. It is later to be revealed that he's not a leprechaun at all, but a rather diminutive Scott who was part of the Resistance, and then tortured into his current state. I'm still working on why exactly he shoots rainbows, but he's just a joke character anyway.

I don't think I have any other 'ethnic' characters. By and large, my characters tend to be mystical entities more often than they are humans. I'm a fan of making demons, druids, fae, robots, etc.

Robots are plenty mystical, shut up.

Ok, a bit more on topic for me...

Whispering Swan: African-American and quite dark skinned at that. It wasn't intentional, thats just how she "looked right." An up and coming professional singer who was performing when the first Rikti invasion happened. Her voice was ruined and her already borderline paranoia drove her even farther over the edge. Now, she kills anyone who she thinks needs to die.

Northern Spirit: Also known as Constable Carole La Fontaine from Alberta Canada. I know, Canadian isn't exactly "ethnic" any more than American is but I try to play her as just a little bit of a stranger in Paragon.

Cassadega Delgado: Her name is very Hispanic, she calls herself a Gypsy. Honestly, I'm not sure I've figured her out yet. She won't give me a straight answer.

-shrug- All of my characters one character and one alt costume default to being black. While their stories and such vary greatly, my main on blueside, Chocolate Rage, is your typical Luke Cage-esque Bigangryblackman Man type character, though he's generally a nice guy. Yes, he started in Galaxy City.

One way I get around even the most remote possibility of someone else having a name I want is using an online guide to translate generic words into Swahili. I'm predicting this has a solid chance of backfiring one day. Other times I'll try to sneak in an "ebony" or "chocolate" in some of the character names. Since spelling things backwards is really clever (no, it's not...) one character is named Naibun Rirrom.

At least one of my arcs has gotten me the wondrously internet aware question of "Are you black in real life?" (I am, BTW) The first being Rider's Ribs Restaurant Rescue which had an interesting development. I was using MA Edition for my class final and I was pumped up trying to think of a good story. Originally, I was going to do something where your mentor got framed so you had to save him and it would be all sorts of "Fight the power!" in feel but while I had the broad strokes in my head, I couldn't make out the details. Plus, there was one thing I wanted to do but I wasn't sure if it would be allowed. On a break during class I walked to the local Bojangles for a quick bite and it suddenly hit me to do a comedy where you had an evil chicken & waffles place trying to take over a friend's local eatery. From there I devised the villainous King Colonel's Chicken and Cake establishment and just ran with the idea.

Another arc, Dhahabu Kingdom and the Indelible Curse of Hate was born out of the desire to have a fantasy story that took place in an African setting instead of a European setting. I had to cheat a bit since I couldn't truly say it was in the past due to the large Paragon Transit Authority station. Portal Corp is a nice way to to get around that by claiming it's an alternate dimension. So I started experimenting with costumes to see what I could do. I can really sympathize with Jophiel on getting something more ethnically accurate that's not a knight or a ninja. Part of me said "screw it" as far as any form of actual accuracy to specific cultures and just went wild with it. While parts of me were paranoid about screwing it up, I think I wound up with a very atmospheric arc whose visual design sensibilities could probably only be fully nitpicked by someone from a specific part of Africa or perhaps a professor.

Katili and Majasusi are both sort of cool looking just by looking at the letters. Shame I never wound up with those two despite characters who the translations might work for. What's your home server? I play on Victory and I have several on Triumph for the MA SG.

Most of my alts are white men and women, but here are a few of my ethnic characters:

Kremlin Colonel - Ice/Axe Tanker; I liked the name and it went with the Ice powers;

Latin Lava - Earth/Fire Dominator; This turned out to be one of my favorite characters to write for in MA arcs, as he's a real cad, yet utterly charming. He's from Buenes Aires.

Cusabo Chief - TA/Archery Defender; This one's my tribute to the Cusabo Indian tribes (Wappoo, Stono, etc.) who once lived around Charleston, SC (my hometown).

Habanero Hottie- Fire/Rad Controller; I got the name from the menu in a local restaraunt, and made her Cuban in origin. I have a couple of Cuban friends and thought the name, costume, powers, and background story all meshed well.

Avenging Disco Diva - MA/Regen Scrapper; ADD is a black woman in the mold of Pam Grier, Rosiland Cash, and Teresa Graves from early 70's (bad) movies.

I also have a couple of redneck characters (a hero and a villain), 2 robots, a werewolf, 2 Trolls, a hippie, a lizard, a ghost, and 2 demons. I also have a character based on a guy from my old high school, a TV character, and a movie character (with different names of course).

Ahhh, variety!

I'm 100% Armenian in real life (albeit an Armenian with chestnut auburn hair, fair skin and hazel eyes... go figure), but my characters are primarily Caucasian (with one or two Japanese in there).

Agent Tavarisch - Sorina Tavarisch is my Russian character. Created based on a pun on the word "tovarich" ('comrade' in Russian), she took on a life of her own before I'd realized it.

Agent Takimura - Takimura Mayumi is my Japanese character, created when several of us in our SG created alts related to the various villain groups. Takimura has a long history with the Tsoo, and later helped develop a sideline storyline for our SG.

Kakita Nasami - my L5R Japanese/Oriental character, and the wandering samurai. A direct import of my character from Legend of the Five Rings, whose immortal wanderings have brought her to Paragon City.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite