AealZX: S.P.E.C.T.E.R.
Okaaay Specter isn't a character but it's creation was at the same time as two other characters so I felt the need to explain it |D
This post says Aeal's name because she's the one typing it. The group was created by her and MissyNeo (much love >u< )
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S.P.E.C.T.E.R. was created sometime in April ish of 2012 and stands for “Specialized Professionals Engaging in Consortion Through Espionage and Reconnaissance”... which is one hell of a mouthful. |D
We usually just call it Specter because it's easier to type, and it's actually the name that came first, not that big long thing. 8'D that long thing was hard to come up with to get it to sound like something that made sense for the mini group and fit with the small word's letters.
1. starting point 8'D
Specter was started because of several things:
i.There was another little mini FBI-esque group in the Caelian faction and I was... something about it. |D Jealous, miffed, considered it to be a challenge, something like that. 8'D They were making a lot of people feel left out so I guess I wanted to show people that they could make their own groups as well and we could all have this mass of different teams that had little rivalry RPs, collab drawings for the missions where our mother factions were fighting against each other, things like that. That Caelian group fell apart soon after Specter was made though, so none of that happened. Ah well.
ii. I noticed that there were people, Neo specifically, who's characters did a lot of behind the enemy lines, secret, sabotage things and thought it would be fun to gather them together and give them a reason to collab together often.
iii. I was on an Assassin's Creed kick and liked the idea of an organization that influenced things behind the scenes. 8 | *shameful copycat* /shot Neo likes AssCreed too |D So we hit it off pretty well 'cause she saw the connection really fast.
Everything was drawn from the idea of a secret organization withing the Arean Army that always worked on fighting through behind the scenes actions, and... somehow we decided that it would be made up of people that didn't follow orders from the general head on infantry people very well. It might have been because of character personalities, and how it didn't make sense to have people from different... platoons? do things like this because they might run into each other and cause a mess. So there needed to be a separate group that ran themselves to avoid those issues.
And all of this became the canon back story for the group too. I set it for before the Eclipse Seal in order to give it a long standing prestige and be more solid in the canon world than something that was randomly thrown together by characters that didn't really know each other.
2. The Name
Specter was something that I knew I wanted for the name since the beginning. A ghost/spirit creature is a type of being that isn't seen very often, showing up to create havoc and scare people, and disappearing without much of a trace. 'Ghost' didn't sound all that cool to me, and 'Spirit' sounded fluffy. I also wanted it to be only one word, so went with Specter.
3. The Uniform
The mask and clothing style came from another picture I did. Which... actually looking back at the description probably had influence on the name and other general ideas as well. |D Though when I drew that picture I didn't even have the starts of an idea for Specter in mind. It was just a random idea that I slapped together for the mission. 8'D
But yes, that picture is where the mask design came from, and then the uniforms were just anything they wanted to wear but that only had the colors that were on the mask. Mostly I did the uniforms that was because I was too lazy to design a permanent one, and because I knew it would be hard to design one that everyone liked. And it was fun to see what everyone would come up with 8'D
4. The Emblem
Since the subgroup was designed to be fully devoted to Ares and it's God, aka closely integrated into Ares, the emblem became the symbol of both Specter and Ares merged together to show that Specter would never break away from Ares.
5. The Execution
After Neo and I got everything sorted out on the basic workings of the mini group we decided to do a fancier invitation than just sending the new members a note saying something like "Woooo new mini group, you're invited, yay 8D". So we made something to set the mood for the group in a way and made a letter that their character would get 'in the mail'
First one looked like this:
Which was just a quick split about the organization, their devotion to Ares, and directions on what to do if they accepted.
The second letter was hella long 8'D and came along with the mask for their character.
This one had details on what the organization's job was and what the characters would be given access to, why they were chosen, and that they were required to get their own uniform made. Throughout the letter there were spelling errors that were there on purpose because it spelled out a phrase for them to figure out and use as a code to prove they were able to do things like that. The phrase was: "Silent as feathers, we are S.P.E.C.T.E.R."
And then this was the third letter:
Short and sweet, it just had a fake address and the time for the group RP that was over Skype so they wouldn't know who they were with until they fully agreed to be in the group.
Then there was the grand reveal of everyone, they got to see all the members and explore the headquarters. Which is next. |D
6. The Headquarters
I think the only thing people saw of the first HQ was this picture:
Which is just the front foyer |D Where there's a big black marble statue of the founder of Specter in uniform. The black marble was because the uniform was mostly black, and also because black marble is less common then white 8'D
But we actually had a whole floor plan for the mansion. 8'D Neo drew one up and then I modeled it in SketchUp
First floor bottom left, second floor top left, and secret basement bottom right. There were a lot of bedrooms and studies, and the basement was for the training room, meeting room, infirmary, storage etc. Otherwise it was just a big normal mansion. Totally okay with showing this because that HQ got destroyed when Necropolis did. |D
