I'm curious about your character creation process,
How do you name your OC?
Also, would you normally come up a name then expand on concept+design,
or do you first come up with the concept then name it?
It depends actually! Most of my characters I come up with/am inspired by a concept first > reason for that situation to take place > then characters and how that situation changes them > then names > and finally I go back and refine the little details until I’m happy
I’ll use Helicaltale as my example for this:
(Though I won’t go in depth, so there’s gonna be a few loose ends, if you have any follow up questions about Helical in particular feel free to ask)
I first came up with Helicaltale when playing Minecraft, watching the sunrise and seeing the Skeletons begin to burn around me
This was at like 3am, so my sleep deprived brain just went: oh, what if there was an Undertale AU where they can’t touch the sun or they’ll die?
So then I decided to explore the Au, WHY would they be unable to touch the sun?
Working from that, question, I slowly developed the story of the AU, during the war, Mt Ebott and its cave systems were destroyed, leaving no place for the Monsters to shelter, so Instead of being sealed Underground, the Humans cursed Cursed Monster Kind to be unable to touch the sunlight
This being the reason they’re forced to live in a City of Tents in Ebott Desert, wearing clothes designed to block out the sun as much as possible
Now I have a setting, how would the characters differ?
Monsters aren’t a secret, after the war their City opened trade with the Human City, so there’s no legend about Mt Ebott, most of the fallen souls never even encounter the Monsters, Asriel and Chara don’t meet (until later)m so they’re both still Alive,
There is no CORE, so Gaster is still the Royal Scientist, now working in the Human city with Alphys and Mettaton, looking for a way to break the curse
While the Royal Guard is still a thing, there’s no need to kill Humans, meaning both Papyrus and Sans become offical Guardsmen, Undyne the Captain, now in charge of securing the city and its people instead of hunting down Souls
With the Story and Characters sorted out, now it’s easier to pick a name for the AU,
I often choose the most important/defining reason it’s an AU for this, in Helicaltale’s case, that is the Sun
So then I research, what words have to do with the Sun, Sol, Apollo, Helios?
Helical, while most often means spiral (like a Helical Screw) it can mean: Centred Around the Sun
Earth itself is in a Helical Orbit around Sol
(Other AUs follow similar patterns, things important to that AU = Name, Eg: Almond Water being one of the most important items in the Backrooms = Almond, the Barrier fell taking out half the Underground with it = Barrierfall, the world is suddenly flooded and covered entirely in water = Spate)
Now with all the important bits done, I get to have fun, I can explore the less thought about aspects of a society unable to touch the sun,
Fashion, gloves often have the ability to pull back and clip the fingers away for finer work, but clip back to full fingered gloves for sun protection,
Jobs, there is no river for RiverPerson to taxi across, so instead they help trade and travellers across the desert via the dried riverbed
Food, do they need vitamin supplements due ti the lack of sun, how would they go about farming their food, Muffet and Grillby actually have a joint Cafe/Restaurant together in this au
How would they treat the rain, would their society become nocturnal, what would the effects of bounce light have on the Monsters, how do they go about guard duties in the heat of the sun, all these small little details and more
All that fun little stuff, it’s like a reward
Though often these come from one off jokes that get expanded with time, for example, Sans being a Black Market Trader started as a funny 2 panel comic and is now an intrinsic part of his lore
Though depending on the AU or story these can all be switched around, sometimes I draw characters with random outfits and build the world around that it depends 🤷♂️🤷♂️
In fact, I’ve actually been considering doing a series where people give me a concept (no matter how weird or even how plain it is) and I try make an AU out of it for them to use how they please, so let me know if y’all are at all interested in that idea
Anyways!! I Hope this helped :D!!
