1000 Character Ideas

Random thoughts for characters that pass through my mind - please don't use my characters exactly, but do use this page for inspiration if you would like to!

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Character #18 is Tommi. She is a female Yamlin (see character 17, previous!).

Tommi loves the idea of large social events. Village fetes, concerts, festivals, parties - these are alien ideas to Yamlin, who generally keep to their own family units. However, Tommi endeavours to break that pattern and organise huge events for Yamlin. If only anybody else wanted to do it with her.

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This is Ioris (”Your is”) - he’s a Yamlin.

Yamlin are a race of little people - like Borrowers or Gnomes or Minnish or something.

Yamlin live in people’s homes and steal food from them to feed themselves. However, many people welcome Yamlin into their house - as they will fiercely defend and protect homes from intruders. Think of them like cats - people keep them around and feed them because they’re neat, tidy, and keep out other pests.

Yamlin are not very social creatures, they generally don’t meet with others of their race and stick to their family units. They will usually only talk with Yamlin who live very close by. Usually, the oldest Yamlin child will inherit the home they live in - any younger sliblings will move out to make a family.

Male Yamlin are known for being very agile - while female Yamlin are known for having very keen eyes. Ioris is a male yamlin, and like most of his ilk he is a massive showoff.

It’s strange, really, that in humans it seems to be the stereotype that women like to dress up and make themselves beautiful - while in nature, it is usually the males of the species that are the most showy and colourful. Yamlin don’t break that pattern the same way humans too - males of the species are more often found preening themselves and showing off their style.

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Character #16 is Piek. He’s a character based on an idea by my friend Flick.

Piek is a siamese twin - but instead of having two heads, which connect at the neck, or connect at the stomache, they connect in his head. That is - he just has two brains.

Piek (Peek) and Piek (Pike) consider themselves to be two different people, even though they share a body.

Ideally, two people would write the character of Piek - one writing one of his personalities, and one taking the other.

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Character #15 is Lightfoot.

She has massive, heavy Golem Gauntlets, which have a magic element to move as she wishes (responding to her thoughts as well as her movements).

However, wizards and mages would be able to move the Golem Gauntlets without touching them at all - and turn them against her. So - it’s pretty dangerous work!

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Character #14 is Kip

He is a friendly tiny rabbit-guy. His species like to hide in tall grass - large groups of them can hide easily as the tips of their ears are camouflaged in the green grass!

Kip is a speedy guy and would like to use his size and speed to help out adventurers and explorers - but he’s quite naive and always ends up falling in with the wrong crowd. So long as villains are nice/charismatic people, he won’t see any problem with helping them out!

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Character #13 is Morgan.

Morgan is arrogant, spoilt and childish (well, she is a child). She is selfish and mean - but likes to show off to adults and try to gain their favour.

She wants to be popular, and knows who not to be mean to - to become their friends. She can be a bit of a mook for other people, but if she’s on the side of a ‘good guy’ then she can really do a lot of good.

She is, of course, a child (and modern) version of the witch Morgana. Taking an ancient character and trying to imagine them as a person you might meet in real life (removing fantasy elements!) is always nice.

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Soan is character number 12.

Soan is an incredibly boring looking man - he is also a very very dull man.

However, he is an incredible mage - one of the most powerful spellcasters in the world. If only he had a passion for anything.

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Character #11 is Rache (Short for Rachel)

Many fantasy settings (mostly Japanese RPGS!) feature ‘ancients’, a race of super-advanced people who have all died off - either by being killed by demons or by their own hubris (or, both!)

Rache is a simple villager with an adventurous spirit who came across a device created by the ancients, to battle against demons. The device is like a parasite that attaches itself to the demon, makes it crazy, and forces it to kill its own kind.

Unfortunately, the device has attached itself to Rache - turning her into a human-killing machine. Ooops!

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Derek, #10

Once, a mighty hero aided a golden dragon in her quest to save the world from hellbeasts, who were threatening to rise up and overtake the realm of the living.

In thanks for his noble efforts, the golden dragon crafted a beautiful and magical dragonscale shirt for the hero - so that he and his line may forever be protected from harm by the magic of the dragon kin.

Now here we are, three generations later - and Derek has inherited the shirt down the line. What a tosser. Derek is a real knobhead - surly, mean, and drunk. The kind of guy you get when you make him and his family completely untouchable by anybody.

Derek is a mercenary - he works for whoever will pay him the most. And, despite having almost no combat skills or intuition, he gets hired - because the magic of his dragonscale shirt makes him untouchable. And so it will continue, until he drinks himself into an early grave - and whatever poor bastard kid he spawns gets to inherit the dragonscale shirt and start it all over again.

(That is, of course, unless he can fall in love and find himself in a situation where he raises his kid well - or if he runs into the ancient golden dragon so she can realise what a mistake the gift was and revoke it - or if he meets up with the person who has a dragonfang sword - or otherwise get himself a lesson in humility)

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Wendy, #9.

Wendy lives in a tiny shack, half-way up a huge snowy mountain.

With her lantern, she shambles slowly back and forth over the icy mountainside - searching for lost and freezing adventurers. When she finds them, she relieves them of their suffering, and sends their souls to the afterlife - as the angels of death are not suited to the frigid terrain and terrible storms on the mountain range.

She has lived in the shack for as long as anybody can remember, and has never aged a day. Children dare one another to go near her home - though if ever anybody were to enter the shack they would find it empty - even if they were sure she had just entered.

Occasionally, Wendy will venture down to nearby villages and purchase food and decorations for her home - moving slowly and speaking in a voice barely above a whisper. However, she does not eat as humans do - and the food simply rots until she throws it out into the barren icy fields. In truth, Wendy enjoys standing in the village and shopping - imaging what it may be like to be human (though of course the villagers mostly react to her presence with abject terror).

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#8, Parfait.

Parfait is the son of a lord (Where he is from, people of status wear jewels and gold around their ears - go figure). And, he is handsome. Simply put - he’s used to getting his own way.

Parfait at his worst is demanding and entitled. He has little thought for making the world a ‘better place’, and disregards people who want to solve larger problems than what he sees with his own eyes. However, at his heart he is a good person - he is kind (especially to his friends), and finds it easy to share his wealth and possessions with others. In his home and in his environment, he wants to make life better for himself and others - and he’ll work hard to do so.

Parfait’s real skill is... baking. But, he is putting himself into debt with local witches and covens as he buys potions and poisons (at what cost?) to use as ingredients in his recipes. He is a master of making devilish desserts - mostly for entertainment. Imagine a guy who brings pot brownies to every party, but occasionally his brownies make people literally fly - or turn random colours - or gain super powers - or teleport back in time for an hours. He’s a pretty cool guy when he comes to sharing out his sweets!

But - when Parfait is acting less than perfectly -  he can be tempted to use his treats to manipulate or destroy those who cross him.

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Dollface is #7!

She is a master crafter and model maker - if you bring her the tools, she can make you beautiful toys and complicated models.

However, she has a vicious secret known to the criminal underworld. There are other humans inside Dollface. Yes, she is a cannibal - and she loves the taste of human flesh. If you cut her open, you’d surely find many other people inside her.

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Character #6, Dloan.

Dloan is not a human - his species are called Tearus.

Tearus are generally considered to be ‘bad guys’, because their sense of ethics is quite different to most other species. Tearus have an ethical drive to create a greater sense of physical well-being for their species, and don’t feel emotions as strongly as other creatures.

For example, it is not unusual for an Tearus society to kill their weak or sick, if their organs could be used to cure other people. On the whole, it would increase the physical well-being of the society, even if some people would die for it. For this reason - Tearus don’t see the complication in the “Trolley Problem” - just redirect the track to kill the single person, to them it’s obvious!

Tearus fashion is also quite different to other species. Their body regulates warmth well by itself, so they literally just paint themselves to express themselves in a fashion sense. However, Tearus like Dloan (Who interact with humans and others regularly) will wear clothes in order to avoid an adverse reaction from others.

Dloan himself lives in a human city as an ambassador for the Tearus people. He is considered to be quite an emotional Tearus, as he has been known to smile once or twice! He is very empathetic with others - Tearus find it easy to understand the emotions of others and identify when people are hiding that they are stressed or upset. However, he is hurt by how difficult he finds it to make friends - both because of people’s opinion of Tearus as generally evil creatures, and because his advice tends to be perceived as cruel or uncaring.

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#5 - The Archelf.

The idea of long-lived Elves has always struck me as... weird. Imagine somebody 1000 years old - they’d have been alive in like the year 1000! That’s mad!

The Archelf is, then, a very long-lived elf (well over 1000 years old) - and a very powerful elf too. Moreover, she is an unusual person - she is very happy to live in complete solitude, with only her books for company. When she was a young elf, she created a magic library whereby books which people wrote would appear on her selves by magic - so it was always up-to-date with the latest science and research.

The Archelf has been in this library now for hundreds of years, poring over the seemingly infinite manuscripts - and collecting knowledge in her own tomes also. She has set up barriers and curses to keep out intruders - and quickly removes anybody who happens across her library. Her physical needs are attended to by a little phoenix-gnome, which she borne herself out of her fine magic. As far as she’s aware, the phoenix-gnome is young - but it is actually also hundreds of years old, it has died of old age and reborn itself several times; but the Archelf is too oblivious to the world to have ever noticed the changes in her sole companion.

Now, the library in which the Archelf lives is all but legend - locals say that it is abandoned, and haunted by vengeful ghosts who consume anybody who enters. The outside is a near ruin. But the elven population remember the Archelf - the elf with more knowledge than any other being in the universe - who is quite impossible to meet.

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Hope Island is a tiny fictional island off the coast of Scarborough in Yorkshire, England. On Hope Island, there is a tiny school - and in that school, there is character #3 Liz and #4 Perry.

Liz is obsessed with celebrity. She loves TV, big brother, x factor, gossip mags - the idea of celebrity and celebrities intrigues her - and she wants to be famous. Being famous is her dream, and she doesn’t care how she achieves it.

Hailing from Hope Island is Veronica Kade - a professional hockey player and the only person of note from the Isle. So, it seems natural to Liz, that she too must take up hockey - and become the most famous celebrity hockey player that there ever was.

However, in her tiny school, there are barely enough female students to make up a hockey team for the 13+ hockey league - let alone afford all of the equipment needed. She will need to use her drive and ingenuity, as well as help from the probation year (first year) teacher at the school and her best friend Perry, to make a success of the Hope Island Hockey Team.

Liz is 13, a year 9 student. She is loud, manipulative and short fused - and a bit of a menace in the quiet community. However, she is driven, confident, loyal and brave.

Perry is her peer and mook, and (depite Liz’s loyalty to Perry) she is often underfoot in Liz’s schemes. She is dim, quiet, not a careful planner, and can appear to be... well... personality-less. Only after building her confidence, and with the careful guidance of adults around her, will Perry begin to understand what her own interests and passions are - and separate herself from being Liz’s mook.

Liz is the extrovert and natural leader/protagoniste on Hope Island - but I’ll be returning to detail other characters from the small British island school on the future.

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Character #2 is Abbi. Abbi (initially) comes from a real-life setting - no magic or fantasy.

Abbi is a character who lives and breathes anime. She is a weeaboo. She takes lessons from manic anime heroines, and tries to emulate them in her own life.

She strikes anime poses, she eats japenese foods, and she runs her life as if she’s an entry on every page of tvtropes (literally click ‘random page’ on tv tropes, then apply whatever that is to her personality). She doesn’t take life too seriously, and has a good heart - she doesn’t do things which hurt others (on purpose).

Many of Abbi’s workmates (she works in a stationary shop) find her to be a bit annoying, but in small doses she’s very fun - and she is popular with shoppers. Her boyfriend, Dave, is a computer-game obsessive and barely spends any time in the ‘real world’ with her.

My idea for the character of Abbi (and Dave) is for them to be thrown into an unreal situation, where they are removed from their usual lives and technology. I had planned them for a comic where a small group of characters move between dimensions at random; with no hope of returning to their ‘home’ dimension, they try to find a place they can call home instead.

In this setting, Abbi would show an upbeat attitude and incredibly resilience - she is a trooper. Despite appearing quite childish in many ways, she actually has a real ability to persevere under pressure.

I may return to Abbi/Dave and the dimension hoppers in the future.

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Hello - welcome to my notebook-blog. Here, I want to collect character ideas for my own future inspiration - and hopefully they will inspire any other readers also. Please feel free to look through my characters if you are looking to pull ideas for your own stories or characters.

Character #1 is Carnival. She lives in a fantasy setting.

Carnival is from a family of magic users, and showed signs of having her own powers from a young age. As a result, she was sent to magic school.

However, Carnival didn’t fit in at magic school - and had trouble with even the simplest of magical tricks. Whatever the spell was supposed to do, hers would do something different.

For you see, Carnival doesn’t actually have magic powers - instead, she unknowingly has strong psychic powers. For this reason, she will continue to struggle and fail in school - until fate sets her on the right path and she learns to manage her psychic abilities.

Carnival’s name comes from her family being fun-loving witches/wizards who love to party - their care-free attitude contrasts with Carnival herself, who is massively conscious of her own failings (as she is constantly reminded of by failing in her schooling).