Character Goals

[Apeiron]

Hey folks O7

So it came up in chat, and it's deserving of its own thread: What do you plan to do with your character(s)?

I know a handful of people have their goals laid out, but because they keep them to themselves it might not get out to other players who want to help one another.

Back in Halcyon Days, the goals for a character were pretty straight forward: Get captaincy (if you were a shini), or some other leadership position within your faction so that you could acquire more powers. But here in PT we don't exactly have something like that for a character to shoot for.

So, with that said, why not share with everyone your plans? You don't have to give the whole step-by-step, but what's your end idea for your writing?

With me writing Kincaid, my goal is to get him to become a renowned thief, and to have him open up a thieves guild within Terminus. Once I've managed to get Kincaid to these two goals, if he's at a decent power level I'll probably retire him and pick up a new character (read: start a secondary).

 

[K3]

I suppose I'll start this with my unique brand of insanity in planning. Let's begin with Annora, shall we?

Annora was the second character I created for PT, but was easily the clearer of the two originals in purpose and goals. I've never written an out-and-out pacifist before, someone opposed to violence as a method of attaining goals. Annora is very much a 'last resort' sort of gal when it comes to fisticuffs, and I'm enjoying using more unique and sidelong approaches to her conflicts. Of course, there are some deeper goals with that, but I think I'll leave some secrets to be discovered.

As for the goals for her? I'm enjoying the process of balancing a non-violent character with a violent world, and fully intend to bring her into the process of reconciling her identity as a spurii with her desire to be recognized as a person instead of a vague idea; and finding her place as someone who desires to be of value in a violent world, while not being particularly talented at being aggressive.

Notus was the first character I created for PT, and his was originally a very shallow concept. I wanted a high-flying, smartass-remark-making, jubilant corsair ala Han Solo. He was something of an escape of the darker, down-to-earth concepts I'd worked with in Halcyon Days, and like everything else I touch, he inevitably got heavy. What began as a smarmy corsair became an over-the-hill smuggler running from a noble upbringing and a misunderstanding. I'd never written anyone particularly aged before, so the idea of someone who was very much past their prime was appealing for their unique set of challenges in the world.

Notus wouldn't be able to fight agilely, he wouldn't pack as much of a punch, and he wouldn't be as quick on the draw, so he'd naturally have to rely on outwitting his opposition. A skill all the more useful in his dangerous profession. Even his debut reeks of "Han Shot First", and I was genuinely pleased by how two-faced I made him come across as. My goals, sadly, fell through with him, but he remains in the background (for now) in the company of an old flame, Caterva.

The third character I made was in fact Caterva, a beyond-ancient demvir of dubious origins, she in fact predates not only much of the existing cast in PT, but the Cursus War itself. She's what I'd consider to be a 'first generation' demvir, a machina who awoke in the ensuing years after Terminus' discovery, but prior to the mass-awakening of demvir during the Cursus War. If writing a character past their prime was appealing, writing someone who was ancient was all the more.

Caterva had vestiges of the story I'd always wanted to tell with my original HD character, Tougen. Plagued by memory, and haunted by centuries of experience that cannot be forgotten, she took to seafaring as a simple cargo hauler (making a little extra on the side for shadier operations) as captain of her own ship. She also remains in the background, but I hope to one day explore her character more fully, along with her relationship with Notus.

Then we reach the fourth, and most recent, character I've made: Leidan Halbert. I'm really happy with how I've utilized him so far: old beyond his years, embittered by a rough line of work that has him deal with the darker sides of everyday life, he's barely into his 20's but he's shrewd and almost uncannily observant. Leidan has remnants of my last PC in Halcyon Days, Kiro. I wanted to work with a character who could make quick, astute observations without being walled behind their own flaws. Instead, I could make his flaws more of a slow-burn in his disinterest in spurii, and his over-seriousness in the face of a particular set of problems.

I definitely can't wait to see how his plans with his little 'A-Team' in the Conexus pan out, and I'd recommend keeping an eye out for those he's interacted with. The good Lieutenant of Domestic Affairs has more pull now than perhaps anyone else with his rank in the Conexus.

That's about it for now, but as a more general goal for me in the RP, I personally look forward to getting some experience with wider-spanning arcs in a great variety of environments. HD was great, but its locations were always very narrow in scope. Hopefully Araevis proves a big enough playground that I can stretch my legs a bit and get my characters into a variety of situations to round out my writing skills.

Cheers, everyone

 

[swaswj]

I'm going to lead off with what my idea was when creating Keydis before explaining my goals.

First thing was that I wanted a character completely unlike Sayis, for a few reasons. Obviously, a big one was that I've played Sayis for so many years, I needed a break. Another one was Sayis' frustrating (to me) penchant for talking his way out of conflict. It was in-character for him to do so, and he had the sort of self-assurance and power to back it up. They were cool moments in their own right, but I also feel like it would have been fun to write out the battles themselves. The final reason was a bit self-limiting: spell-casting made it easy to make battles unique, and so I want to challenge myself by giving my new char fewer tools.

I've always loved writing Kyuto, but she didn't feel like she had main PC potential. Kyuto was also, I'll admit, a bit of a Mary Sue, with all the cockiness and skill but also a sharp, quick wit when she needed it.

Keydis is in some ways a more mature version of Kyuto, but with fewer redeeming traits. She's not just cocky, she's headstrong. She's skilled in battle but not because she's witty: because she's relentless. She's relentless in training herself as well as in fighting. Quick to anger, quick to lash out, even with friends and family. Keydis is a selfish and self-centered character.

And my goal is to have her grow beyond that. Keydis is flawed and, to a degree, knows it. Her response most of the time is, "Deal with it," but I want to gradually work her toward being more considerate of others, more aware of the plights of others, and thinking about aspiring to more. She's started on that path with Annora, although I would say she doesn't really understand why she's trying. When push comes to shove, Keydis will still do what she thinks she should, regardless of how Annora feels about it... and there's a chance she'll drive Annora away.

Or she could get better.

It's not a very clear goal, but it's a precursor to more fleshed out goals. With Sayis, his goal was to overcome his own weaknesses, his lacking self-confidence, and everything else came after that first step. The same will be true for Keydis. Until she can think beyond her own selfish wants, she really can't aspire to anything greater.

 

[Inks]

I WON’T LIE, I don’t know that for any of my characters, I have a specific “end-goal” in mind – that is, a point at which I will go “aaaaand now their story is totally finished! =>” (But that’s mostly ‘cause I get overly-attached to every stupid loser I make and want their stories to go on forever and ever).

HOWEVER! Despite my whole, ya know, me-ness about writing (that is, I DON’T, and also, when I do it’s mostly random ‘HEY DO U WANNA?’ collabs), I actually think about writing quite a bit. As I recently mentioned in chat, my process for character creation tends to be ‘oh hey I like this one, single aspect of a personality. I should make a character whose personality is built around this trait.’ And then I do that. (Then I do that many times, too many times, send help I can’t stop) So when I first design a character, they are, IN MY HEAD EVEN, pretty much caricatures of the trait I wanted them to have the most.

Of course, once they’re made, I start thinking about them, and thus a million billion plot-lines are born (that I will never be focused enough to actually write). (PS I am just writing what the fuck ever and proofreading this would = 'deleting this' so enjoy my shitty writing and grammatical errors u little shits)

EXAMPLE NUMERO UNO: Eloquii Aequoris stemmed from basically me taking one-half of March-from-HD’s biggest (smiley in the face of anything) and constructing a character from it. A big part of El’s personality is his general bright chipperness, and also a general lack of acceptance of the seriousness of some situations. As opposed to March, of course, he doesn’t have hundreds of years of trauma and a developed sense of nihilism driving his ‘might as well smile about it!’ attitude.

So I had to plot out a different reason for it (reasons involving the key he wears around his neck at all times). My goals for El are sort of manifold. Of my characters, I would say I have the biggest changes planned for Eloquii. Part of this is going to focus on a conflict between what Eloquii wants to do and what he’s done his whole life so far (pickpocketing and stealing) – what his IDOL did (pirating), and the difficulty inherent in changing. The other part of my current goals for El have to do with his eventual vistra arc, and the fun of wondering if part of his personality is actually him at all.

In my head, a short description of my plans for Eloquii are writing a character who develops from someone who runs and runs and runs, to someone who stands and fights and protects (enjoy the CHEEESE).

EXAMPLE NUMERO DOS: Deucalion Aequoris Aureus was designed right after El, because he plays a big part in El’s history. He’s probably the primary reason El seems to see pirates in such an idealistic fashion (after all, he was adopted and cared for by one). To El and El’s plots, he’s a strong fatherly figure whose own happy and free lifestyle was ruined, at least partially because of El.

On his own, he’s a mess of a middle-aged ex-pirate dealing with being forced out of the only lifestyle he really knew. He’s had to learn how to handle being blinded later in life, and is dealing with some long-lasting feelings of betrayal, since it was his own crew that mutinied and blinded him. As for his goals: When/Where I would start writing Deucalion, he’s pretty much at the low-point in his life. He used to be an infamous, smarmy, dashing pirate who went where he wanted when he wanted, and had friends who’d follow him wherever he so chose to go. In essence he’s going through mid-life crisis, and is having a hard time adapting to a life of being blind and doing simple menial labor (he spends a lot of his days fishing fer fuck’s sake).

Deuc’s goals half-reflect El’s – writing someone who realizes that what they’re doing (or were doing) might not be what they really want to be doing. When he was young, Deuc was raised one way – and decided he’d rather do literally anything else. Thus the pirating. Raising El was uncomfortable because, as Deuc has likely realized during his days fishing, his crew wasn’t exactly wrong: raising a kid had softened him, possibly too much to want to go around thieving and pirating anymore. Which leaves a fun character arc of a 45-year-old blind man wondering what he’s supposed to do with himself from now on. My goal for Deuc is, of course, to write him finding his second wind in life, and also maybe a new calling; whatever that may be.

EXAMPLE NUMERO TRES: I can’t remember if I made Nonus Novem or Perseus first – but fuckit I’ll cover Novem since I am already thinking about him.

Novem was designed to cover the second part of March-from-HD’s sort of. Eccentric personality. And that part is the ‘soft friendly smile hiding someone who will fucking murder you without a second thought if it suits him’ sort of personality. Novem also has a tragic-as-fuck backstory, as is fitting my characters, and that factors heavily into the goals I have in mind when I think about his character arc(s). As-is, Novem has three personas – the charming magician he puts on in public, the cold, emotionless assassin he puts on for the people who own him, and beneath them both, a man with years and years of anger boiling just under the surface.

Killing, and the consequences thereof, feature heavily in my plots for Novem. His parents and his ‘tribe’ were all murdered in front of him, he was forced to kill his own brother or die himself and chose the former, and he’s been killing people at the word of people he hates ever since. Most of his plots are exploring the consequences of all of these things – including but not limited to Novem’s own personal agenda of assassinating slavers and anyone and everyone who has ties to slavers. My goals for Novem are BASICALLY to show a slippery slope of revenge. His story will probably see him seated fully in villain territory if I ever write it. Guy’s just got that much anger and hate to go around.

EXAMPLE NUMERO CUATRO: Okay, NOW Perseus. Perseus Artifex Vanitas is pretty much 100% my interest in writing someone who is just. A little. Off. A little different. Who thinks in ways that aren’t quite the norm. He’s weird – has been since he was an ickle little kiddo – and he’s always going to be weird. It’s just who he is. Perseus is also me deciding I want to have a character who is just not a combatant. He can’t fight – put a sword in his hand, and he’ll try to study it, maybe break it apart if he’s in the mood. Put a sword in his hand with a monster in front of him, and he’ll probably drop it out of fear – call him a coward, but fighting isn’t Perseus’s forte. He’s a craftsman and ‘intellectual’ through and through.

My goals, now, for Perseus, involve a lot of weirdness. Vistra weirdness, in particular, factors heavily into the story I want to write with Perseus. Writing the mix of a purely-noncombatant character and a ‘monster’ that clearly wants to destroy appeals to me. I’d also like to write, to a degree, Perseus’s struggle with two parts of himself – the part of him that wants to understand, maybe even like people, and the part of him that just wants to dismiss them other than what they can do to improve his crafts.

E-EXAMPLE NUMERO CINCO (DON’T JUDGE ME): I won’t lie. Of my characters, Red is probably the one with the least plot fodder rolling around in my head. When I made Red, I knew a few things: I wanted to make a female character (AT LEAST ONE), I wanted her to be decidedly unfeminine, and I wanted her to be headstrong. She’s like the opposite of Mitsuyo from HD, who was a rather-effeminate redhead boy with no confidence at all. Red is loud, snarky, and quick to speak her mind. She has a stubborn streak to span a damn ocean, and tends to pursue things relentlessly once she sets her mind to it. On the other hand, Red has a few insecurities floating around – ones she’s quick to overcompensate for with fists, bullets, a hammer, her shoe...whatever’s available really.

The only strong goal I have in mind for Red is (HER CATCHING UP TO KEYDIS AND FINALLY PUNCHING HER IN HER STUPID SMUG FACEHOLE) her coming more into herself, and replacing her current brand of angry-violent-shoot-you kneejerk reactions to everything with a more easy, comfortable confidence. Then again, Red really just likes a good fight, so maybe fisticuffs will always be her reaction to things.

EXAMPLE NUMERO SEIS: I WILL WRITE A BUNNY MAN AND HE WILL BE GREAT AND HE WILL BE A BUNNY MAN AND WILL GO ON BUNNY ADVENTURES AND WILL BE SO SHORT YOU CAN PICK HIM UP AND JUST THROW HIM IF HE ANNOYS YOU JUST KIDDING THOUGH HE WOULD PROLLY KICK YER JAW OFF WITH HIS STRONG BUNBUN FOOTSIES IF YOU TRIED THAT. I HOPE YOU'VE ENJOYED THIS PINK TEXT COLOR.



Okay I wrote too much and none of it makes sense so I am going to just leave now okay bye

bye

 

[FogOverLondon]

I don't have any significant plans for my new gal, Nysvernera. She's going to be a quiet person, only because I like the idea of the tension that'll make lol. Plus, I feel like that writing her that way will force me to have her evoke more emotions when writing what she's trying to communicate. She's getting kicked out of her home, then adventuring, then assuming my old character's identity for some sidequest/mainquest drama, she's going to become a Vistra at some point in there. But outside of that she's got nothing to do except travel around and see fantastical shit lol.

 

[Rob]

So, I'll add to this as I go, and I'll probably edit and update it later as I come up with more stuff, but here goes.

I have been gone for a while, in-between a hiatus and having quit writing altogether. I haven't had much motivation, but I'm trying to come back. Part of this has to do with life being super busy (finished school finally, got a full time job... finally), but part of it has to do with me not really knowing what I want PT to give to me, what I expect from it, what I expect from myself.

More so than that, though, I don't really know what I want for Rosa, what I want from her.

Rosalina Tacita "Rosa" Aetius is an amalgamation of several ideas I've had and continue to have, all of which work on their own, but I'm not sure they work as a group. I don't think she's Mary Sue in any way, shape or form. She's quite mentally unstable, especially now with her vistra arc well under way. She's a psychopath, but one that seems to hide it relatively well. She's a sadist through and through, and while she knows of things as love, happiness, as well as the 'warmth' of another being, she does not have the capacity to appreciate them.

They are mere tools to further her goals, to further herself, because that's who Rosa really is: a continuation of a plot-line I once thought up for Nana, but never had the capacity to fulfill back in the days of HD: ascendance. The idea to become more than others, to stand tall above all else is an idea I've had for a while now, but I realized the futility of it back then with Nana - HD was coming to a close, and there just wasn't enough story for me to use it effectively and justify it.

With Rosa, and the way PT works, I've decided that this is Rosa's goal, and I honestly think it makes sense for Rosa. It is also for this reason that her skills set up is pretty odd in that she holds both the power of life and death, healing and necromancy. The power to give and take life. I plan on eventually getting both of them to Grand Master, and that's when the real challenge starts, but you've gotta dream big, right?

As for 'short term' goals. I don't know, really, that's what makes me so inactive. I don't know what I want to do with her, I know I have to finish her vistra arc (collab is still ongoing with finny, for instance), but after that I have nothing.

One thing I know for certain, though: Rosa is not a 'hero', not an 'anti-hero', and not an 'accidental hero' either. She's a villain, she does not play nice, and while she appreciates people being nice and doing nice things for or to her, their may always come a time when she'll stab you in the back, with a knife, in the gut, just so she can use you as a toy, or a vessel for her own soul.

 

[Redfin]

So... I'mma be honest here and say I've achieved 50% of the goal with Cicely, and that is turn the plot into a sitcom. Now that I have a place of hanging out and some side characters, that can happen. My second goal for Cicely is probably much harder, and that I want the tavern to be a place that is other PC's/NPC's. Perhaps turn the place into some sort of adventurer's gathering point with an adventure board and all that.

She was never meant to be a character that has some great struggle or problems. She has little problems of life that I have not made up, yet.

I do keep on tossing around a more serious style of character. It's an idea that has actually been around for quite a while. I am not sure why I never used it, though I do know why I don't write it now. It's because I get a lot of character ideas, so I try and restrict myself to just one main character. This character would be more active in doing missions, though, actually being capable of fighting.

But being in PT works so much better for the character than HD, I think.

 

[Valero]

To be honest I tend to wing a lot of my writing. Back when I created Shukumei, I was a poor writer and had very linear ideas. A nervous little kid who has a sort of darkness within him? Yeah, real original like. When I created Deni, however, I wanted to go for something that I hadn't done before. I wanted to make people laugh with a kind of sarky, funny, "lovable rogue" type of character. Little did I know that I'd end up making an aquatic Johnny Bravo, but that's just part of the hilarity.

What I didn't expect, however, was that such a simple-minded character, being obssessed with women and indulging in alcohol, had started to develop such complex thought processes. He ran away from his family at a young age and misses them dearly, but will never go back. He lives for himself, indulging in the pleasures of life, but at times - notably when running with the ANO - he throws himself into the line of fire as if he doesn't care about living at all. He ain't such a simple guy after all.

As for goals now, well... I want him to become a proper gangster, the kind that's almost untouchable because too many people are afraid to testify against him or because members of law enforcement are corrupt/owe him. The great thing is, even if that goal is eventually achieved, there's always going to be missions revolving around him, extorting people who owe him money or hunting down people that plan to bring him down. The very thought of this achievement excites me.

One thing I will say is that I agree with Finny on this one. PT is a much nicer place for character development compared to HD. The fact that our impact on the RP as a whole isn't entirely linked to our stats means that I can focus on the quality of my writing as well, rather than whacking out sloppy chapters quickly to try and keep up with everyone else.

 

[Mystydjinn]

Hi there PT, it's me again, late to the party as usual.

It took me a while to figure this out since when I decided on Aelflead as a character, I didn't really have a clear goal with her. It didn't help that she initially going to be something completely different from what she is, and because I don't know how to say anything straight I'm gonna bore you with Aelflead's inception.

Aelflead was originally a pirate named: Rose Del, and she was a pirate who'd eaten a fire devil fruit for a One Piece fanfiction series I was going to start and put on FF.net. Rose was not the asshole that Aelflead is by a long margin. Smarmy and crass for sure, but not nearly as apathetic or done with the world, just a smartass with a temper.

When PT started I decided I'd just develop Rose for Araeavis instead, so I started reading up on the existing lore. The sci-fi of the world crossed with fantasy spoke to me and I wanted to create a character that reflected the world they came from as much as possible and that meant that terrans were immediately out, along with 90% of Rose's design.

Initially Rose was set to be enlil. The concept of flight and ideals of freedom that they promised were cool, but they were also frail and insubstantial physically, and that wasn't something I wanted Rose to exude. Rose had to exude strength, be intimidating and hold an air of menace. Velen of course would be the obvious choice, tall, fangs, impressively strong, but compact and resilient enough to handle the pressure of the ocean. The problem was the philosophy around them, they were gentle giants, not imposing masters of their environment.

Terrans were the last option, but they were too like the natural world I already knew, and weren't immersive enough. Their attitude was beneficial though, so I opted for a spurii. A mix of the three would have been my preferred choice if just for the sake of the abilities the avians offered, but limitations offered me a layer of depth.

As a Laicar/Velen spurii, Rose became less bombastic and more focused. I decided she wasn't a people person anymore, she liked order, or at least her version of it. Her temper became more central to her character, flaring up with more brilliance than before and becoming more of a destructive force than something for comedy like it was initially intended, and now she was carrying big parts of myself.

She needed a reason to hate the world so I took her parents. I was still denial about the situation with my folks at home, so I couldn't imagine someone as angry and violent as this girl was going to be who grew up in anything resembling a partially stable home. So she became an orphan at birth, then a runaway, then she had a selfish monster for a mother.

At this point she stopped being Rose Del. The name was too basic now, and the harder I tried to cling to the name and themes of roses the cringier she got.

Initially her mother, Madame Adamas's narrative was supposed to be that of someone using marriage to rise out of poverty but grew bitter when things didn't go according to plan and she wound up holding a smoking gun in her daughter.

Things changed obviously, but that was enough to give Aelflead her name. I figured a madame who saw her daughter as more a tool or burden than anything would give her a name that would be practical in the future. Something fancy that could be shortened into something easy to moan.

So Aelflead grew up in a cesspool of selfishness, spite, and general filth of a moral and literal sense; and her education would make her acutely aware of it, so the knowledge of her misfortune became the source of her frustration. The catalyst for her story had to be something more drastic than her home though, so I made her teacher an important character in her life, then had Adamas kill her and traumatize Aelflead in a fit of rage. I didn't get a solid reason why till recently.

All of that was said to say: Aelflead's story, my goal for her at least. Is to explore self-destructive behavior in someone who is fully aware that they're self destructive. And since its supposed to be an explorative story, I want to use exploring Araeavis as a backdrop for her development (but not necessarily growth). There's lots in the world we've created with just the bits and pieces we have rolling around, and with an angry ball of contradictions I've got all the excuses I could want to explore them, and maybe turn Aelf's attitude around at some point.

The current plan is to build her frustration with the world up to a point that she's actually willing to get off her angry brown ass and do something about it. Her exposure to ANO from Sound of Trumpets and the relationship she was able to observe between Mor, Rapax, and Orator should make it relatively simple to have her arrive at the catastrophic conclusion she needs to create a space on a large scale that conforms to what she considers order. So Aelf is basically on track to start a war, either a civil one to take over an existing country, or one to secure land of her own.

Then there'll be politics and villain dresses abound.