Ethnic Characters - Tell Me About 'Em

Hmm... Does it count if I'm an Eastern European from the former Soviet block, but most of my characters tend to be American built around what I've gathered Americans to be like from American movies and video games?

Honestly, though, I don't have any characters who define themselves by their ethnicity, with the possible exception of my Captain Indivisible, who was designed to be an intentionally and wilfully stereotypical all-American hero caped crusader for justice, and I don't think he counts. I have a Czech werewolf dude, but all his ethnicity matters for is his name/

Hmm... You know...

Does "alien" count as an ethnicity? Because I have a fair few aliens who identify themselves as members of their own race first and foremost. Like that energy being who's left as the sole survivor of her entire race and civilization, who takes pride in her heritage and seeks to restore it. As well, of course, as your stereotypical murderous robot who is so proud of his machine kind that he's determined to replace all other life forms with machines.

But that doesn't count, does it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Most of mine are avatars of obscure deities or other historical figures:

Mayahuel - electric/mind blaster, originally was the Aztec goddess of tequila.

Yansan - shield/electric tanker, named after a West African goddess of storms.

Jade Emperor - sonic/rad defender, a Chinese deity of the afterlife featured on Hell Money.

Ranavalona - claws/willpower brute, a notorious queen of Madagascar

Giulia Tofana - katana/willpower stalker, named after an assassin from Renaissance Italy

Left out one. Verily Smite, katana/willpower scrapper, an African American church lady who fights crime.

<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

Erin Brand - Irish-American BS/WP scrapper whose name means "Sword of Ireland."

Thundershaft - Native American Storm/Archery Defender (have both female & male versions of this toon).

Soviet Winter Knight - Russian Ice/Ice blaster who wears battle armor.

Head-to-Head - Handicapped Indian-American mutant Mind/Emp controller.

Lord Stormbringer - Ancient Norwegian demi-god/storm-elect corruptor.

Count Gregor - Irradiated Russian Vampire. Not a pleasant dinner companion.

I have a Fire/Kin Corruptor from 1860's Moldavia, based on Baron Zoria's assumed travel path between Russia and England, and myself making up a non-canon conflict between the Prince of that country and assuming that a pre-Thorns Zoria could have had a previous cult under his control.

Ethnicity is a part of a character's story. The degree to which ethnicity affects any individual person is highly variable, of course, but it's almost certain to have at least a minor impact on one's experiences and personality. I do have at least one character for whom "rich and white" was integral: said character was also slightly out of touch with how ugly life could be and got a very rude awakening. I've got one character who is ethnically third- or fourth- generation Irish-American, but puts more emphasis on "American" than "Irish."

I've got a few shades of Native American characters: two built around Aztec (or "nahuatl" or "Mexica", as they call them depending on context) culture and lore, and a far more contemporary Navajo whose backstory is, I understand, all too typical of someone from a Reservation these days: categorized by low-quality education and high poverty. However, he's less "Navajo" and more "poor, blue-collar, and Western."

Then, there's a character from an ethnicity that doesn't even exist on Primal Earth. I had free reign there, but the character in question is intimately tied to social class.

Amongst my less often used characters, I do have a 200 year old Chinese psychic, a 150 year old British assassin, and a 100 year old Italian American ex-mafioso. (He was a kneebreaker who worked his way up to skullbasher.) All of those carry attitudes that are, in some way, reflective of their socioeconomic histories.

My avatar is me, so that's American, with German and Scandinavian roots

99% of my characters use, I think, Face 3 because it looks the most African-American, I'll usually add glasses and a moustache. My wife and kids say that my characters look like me, and that's the way that I like it. Most of my characters have masks or helmets, I'm a "power armor" sort of guy, but I still usually go with that face. I don't really think of the ethnicity, just as I don't in real life, but since I'm African-American, and I make all my characters look like me, I guess they're African-American too

I did make one character that I choose a different ethnicity for, "Lyfe Flyte" my emp/emp defender, was of American Indian descent. Used the same face but no moustache or glasses, and a long ponytail in the back.

I have a character whose backstory is tied to the Soviet Union, and the collapse thereof. I also have one who is very much British, but only because he was inspired by two British characters.

I have made a few attempts at my magic-origin Middle Eastern character, but they all stalled when I couldn't find a name I liked for him. I usually just end up making generic white chicks.

Early in game I went with a Captain America pastiche/parody theme, and ended up with Sotnik Estonia, Ensign Uzbekistan, Agent Upper Volta, and Subadar Ceylon.

I've got also an undead Englishman who lived mostly in Qing China (Saltpetre), a Mnyamwezi Mganga (an East African sorcerer), a Midwestern whitebread American boy (Kid Mucilage), one Baluchi, two Northern Koreans, a Dutchman with Japanese henchmen, a Dyula imam (Marabout), a Southern redneck (Trailer Trasher), one American Jew (Shmuel Shovel), a couple white southern Californians (including Captain Tanfastic), a Swiss (German, I suppose) stuntman (Neutrel Knievel), two Blaxpoitation-themed toons (Unlikely Man and Son of Son of Shaft), and one Aleutian-Malagasy (Jungle Esquimaux) for the unlikely hybrid.

Recent deletions include a Saxon (as in early modern Germany Saxon), an evil Larry Csonka (Czonkanator), and a Manchu counterpart to the Englishman above.

I've been toying with creating new German, Thule, and Hutu villains, but they probably won't be rolled til Going Rogue. If they ever create a Spear/Staff combo for scrappers, I'll certainly roll a Spear/Shield with Shangan or Ndeble ethnicity.

Hmmm, I appear to have short-changed the Latin American world. To the character creator!

I don't really make any "Captain Ethnic' Characters, 'cause I find them annoying, and generally kind of stupid. But me, Being an Ambiguously Brown Looking sorta fella( Black/White) most all of my characters are black or some kind of brown.

I probably have more robots and androids than any ethnicity, but I do like to play around with it. Here's a visual aid for the characters I'm going to list.

For a while I had a whole team of multicultural "Miss American" characters from different decades which reflected the changing times. The first was a blonde Ms. Liberty type (1950s), followed by a brunette Jewish heroine (1960s), who was succeeded by a black woman (1970s), who was followed by an android (1980s & 90s) who was succeeded by the current Miss American who is of Japanese descent. In the Alt Alphabet picture only the 1970s Ms. American and 2000s Miss American still exist. The rest I've deleted to make room for other characters.

I also have a character named Ms. Gaia who is intentionally a multicultural "woman of the world" who is a melange of ethnicities and has lived all over the globe.

African-American
Black Bettie
Marshal Starr
Ms. American
Nightbeam
Quickthorn
Steeldriver
UnSub

British
John Bull
Sleepless Knight

Cajun
King Cajun

German
Der Ubermensch

German American
Antiviral
Yuletide Carol

Greek American
Minotaur X
Minotaurus

Hispanic
Fly
Kid Chaotic
Policewoman
Rojo Rayo (Guatemalan)
Tora Toro (Brazilian of Japanese/Hispanic descent)

Icelandic
Miss Iceland

(Eastern) Indian
Blastermind
Kid Hawk
Nightmaul

Irish
Lucky the Leprechaun

Irish-American
Arrowpoint
Tommi Gunn

Italian American
Gyrfalcon Prime
Ironik
Kinetic Kid
Pazzo Piezo
Zip Gun

Japanese
Yakuza Joe
Tsuba Inu (alternate Earth)

Japanese-American
Miss American

Native American
Galaxy Guardian (Nez Perce of an alternate Earth)
Liberty Ace (Apache)
Votan (Mayan)

Russian
Red Square (not pictured)
Starshina Mir
Tunguska Titan

Welsh
Warshield

Tessa Darkart (lvl 50) a Demon/Ghost Hunter and spellcaster. Romanian descent.

Witch-Hunt (Deleted with plans to remake) Mutant with Energy Manipulation powers who melded with a Khledian, creating to much uncontrolled energy and thusly needing power dampeners. South African descent.

Both from those respective countries. For them both I picked up a handful of words I figured I'd use often enough in IC talk, that wasn't to distracting (Romanian & Afrikanese) and just added a hint of flavor.

Like say...hello, goodbye, yes, no, brother, sister...ect. Nothing more than 10 words.

And my main, while ICly she'd likely learn a bit more about her heritage, when she learns it, isn't likely to all of a sudden start saying Japanese often. Though, as she is reincarnated kitsune, who's had a lapse of remembering of that past life (then forgetting it), I'll likely pick up a few words for her at some point, just to throw out the next time it resurfaces.

But all in all, for the main it's less of a factor, more so as she doesn't look Japanese at all and remembering her name, she wouldn't come to think it. But one day...one day she'll remember! And maybe I'll have it make an impact.

That day of course, is when fox tails become a CoH reality.

My three big ones would be the group I call the "Japan Trio":

Takezo "Akuma Ryu" Himura: A time displaced Samurai who fought an alternate (or possibly the future of this) Lord Recluse in his village of Shiki, Japan in 1776.

Kaede "Tenshi Ryu": A mystical miko born with an innate gift for healing magic and from the same time and village as Takezo, the two were childhood friends and young lovers until a painful affair she had with a ronin. She was with Takezo during a fateful duel against Lord Recluse and the two barely stood a chance, bleeding and dying, they both dragged themselves through the time portal and wound up in Paragon.

Sakura "Tenshi" Sakuraba (She's annoyed with her parents for giving her such an unimaginative name): A magical girl from modern Japan who's been in the business too long. She knows the ins and outs and has seen that just because Japan might be like anime, doesn't mean real world rules don't apply (one of her most painful memories was watching a six year old magical girl get crushed to death by a careless mecha pilot). She's friends with Takezo and somewhat rivals with Kaede, though her friendship with Takezo is because she's the direct blood descendant of his sister from 1770's, also her reincarnation.

But, being the Japanophile I am, I actually have a lot of Asian characters despite my attempts to avoid it:

Kohaku Kousaka: Is a Yuki Onna of JUSTICE! and the wife of Sakura's magical girl mascot, Ebisu (who is secretly a Nekomata, or "Corpse Dancing Cat"). She keeps a circle of bodyguards to help her deliver JUSTICE! on the Rogue Isles at its source.
But be warned, she's not all Tokusatsu fangirling, she has a brilliant mind and once was wickedly cruel, and can still be if you cross her loved ones the wrong way.
Though Vibhishana, her court's Medicine man, is actually Indian, as you might imagine.

One the flip side there's my Tsoo Green Inkman Ardent Viridian, whom I explicitly avoid giving a an actual nation of origin. Like Sulu or Kato, he is just ambiguously Asian.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.