What inspired Joseph? :oc
Hmm. I’m gonna assume you mean “what inspired [me] to make him.” If you meant something else, let me know!
I can't remember the day I created Joseph, but I remember it being a result of my desire to role play back in, um, middle school, I think. I had a band of friends I hung out with (some of which I still do), and we all played Magic together. We also used to love role playing and writing stories about the stuff we liked, and Magic was one of those things.
I remember as a kid, when I was just getting into Magic, reading the advertising on the package. "You are a Planeswalker," it said. I instantly fell in love with that. I love games that let me be a part of them, and this was no different. To a younger version of myself, this was a chance to be someone I wasn’t, and I ran with it.
That advertising, my friends playing Magic, it got me brainstorming, and Joseph was born. That's right, he's kind of a self insert, if it wasn’t already obvious, but I love him regardless. I used to be ashamed of this fact, but honestly, anymore, I try to embrace it a bit. I like seeing myself in fantasy, and as mentioned, the advertising of Magic kind of embraced it.
Fun fact, I’m not sure I ever stated this here before, but the way I got his surname, Kabox, is from an old cipher that came out of a Burger King meal promoting Men in Black. You could put letters in it, and it would swap them with other letters. I put my last name in it, and got Kabox. It was kind of my go-to fantasy surname for a long time, until I pinned it to Joseph near exclusively many years after the fact.
He started as a power fantasy, someone I wanted to be, or at least thought I wanted to be, but then something changed. I began to see myself differently, and realized I didn't want to be a powerful warrior. In time, Joseph changed with me, though I don't think he remained a fantasy of what I want to be, but more a fantasy of who I already am. A guy shaped by the world and events around him, simply wanting to find his own path. As time went on, and I made his story less self-inserty, he somehow became a bigger self insert, if that makes any sense.
But anyway, before I ramble too much further, that's kind of where he came from. In fact, here’s one of the first cards I ever made of him (I don’t think it’s the first, but it’s old). Excuse how bad it is, I was young.
The art was done by one Ethrimista, who used to be around on DeviantArt, but no longer is, otherwise I’d link them.
That’s right, he actually started out in Naya colors, as I started playing the game exclusively in Red and Green, only later shifting to White as my main color, and eventually ditching Red altogether. This was him before Innistrad was revealed to the public, before I had him raised on Bant. This is unlike the Joseph I have today, in so many ways. Maybe one day I’ll tell more about him, but for now, he’s a relic of the past.
Thank you for the ask! This is a topic I rarely talk about.