#oc development meme

[mrslittletall]

Hnnnnng so many I could ask ;;-;;. 31,33,34, and 39 for the boi Lum ^^ (And no rush at all I know its alot but i couldn't stop myself ^^")

Some facts for the high elf death knight, Lum, from World of Warcraft ^^

31. Is there anything that counts as a “dealbreaker” for them, positively or negatively? What makes things go smoothly, and what spoils an activity or ruins their day? Why?A “dealbreaker” for him would be a broken promise. He takes this stuff very seriously and would be hundred percent there and behind it when he would give someone a promise, so he expect others to keep them too.A day that goes most smoothly for him is the one, where he had a good night’s sleep, could eat a nice breakfast with his loved ones and managed to go hunting a large monster or otherwise threat. What ruins a day for him... when his usual afternoon tea gets interrupted. You can get him into a super grumpy mood then! He even will take the afternoon on a gruesome battlefield. Nobody takes it away from him...!33. How do they learn about the world–what is their preferred learning style? Hands-on learning with trial and error? Research, reading, and note-taking? Observation or rote memorization? Inductive or deductive reasoning? Seeking patterns and organization? Taking things apart and putting them back together? Creative processing via discussing, writing about, or dramatizing things?He likes to learn by reading books and listening to stories, but mostly, by just exploring. Just take a direction and start walking. His dad always says he has this wanderlust from him, cause he couldn’t stay at one place long when he was young too. His most favourite activity when reaching a new, unknown area? Find the highest place and climp it to have a look at the landscape.34. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why?Hm, that is a difficult one.. Lum kinda is much older than he looks like with being undead, but for a while he pretty much had the world view of a teenager before he came to terms with that he only looks like a teenager, kinda is trapped in the body of a young boy while his mind is getting older and older. His worldview however tries to stay as positive as possible, trying his best to better the world, to resolve his past mistakes, trying to get a world where he can feel comfortable living in.However, the older his minds get, the more and more negative and depressed he gets, being tired of seeing all his loved ones around him dying while his body doesn’t age one bit. 39. What sort of questions or thoughts recur in their lives, either specifically or as a theme? Why are these never answered, or answered permanently to their satisfaction?Alright, this is a funny one, cause Lum actually carries around a list with obscure stuff he wants to find out! It can happen that he gets the answers to one of them and just gets the list out and crosses whatever he just witnessed. So yeah, he kinda has a theme of having a lot of obscure questions that interesting him enough to actually keep a list about them ^^

[servantofclio]

If you're still doing the OC creation meme, how about 8, 12, and 14 for Rae? Please and thank you :D

8. What (if anything) do you relate to within their character/story? 

Sometimes I too am very cranky and don’t like dealing with people. Also I, too, wouldn’t know what to do with a baby if handed one unexpectedly. Rae’s introversion is more extreme than mine, but relatable to me.

12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: writing, drawing, edits, etc.)? 

I consider Rae to be not neurotypical, but it’s tricky to figure out how hard to lean into that; I don’t want to be heavy-handed or overly stereotypical in writing her.

14. If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be? 

a) prefers puzzles to people

b) when it doubt, throw in some profanity

To be honest, I haven’t written her all that much yet, so it’s possible that will change over time, but that’s where I’m at right now!

Thank you for the ask! <3

[servantofclio]

2, 5, 8, and 13 for Kascinda Tabris, please and thank you! :D

2. Did you design them with any other characters/OCs from their universe in mind? 

Nope! Kascinda was my first Warden, so I went in unspoiled and knowing very little about the world or game mechanics. I picked a background and a class and off I went.

5. Is there any significance behind their hair color? 

She has reddish hair because I thought it looked cute.

Actually, she has exactly Leliana’s haircut, which made the moment when Leliana exclaimed “I like your hair!” kind of weird from a meta point of view.

8. What (if anything) do you relate to within their character/story? 

She thinks Alistair is really cute. ;)  She also tries to do the right thing, even when she’s not treated well by her society, misled by her superiors, etc. (Don’t read too much into this, Tabris has a way harder life than I do, but she really wants to help people, and I certainly feel that.)

13. How far past the canon events that take place in their world have you extended their story, if at all? 

As far as I’m concerned, after the end of DAO, Kascinda and Alistair and her dog go off and live happily ever after together. None of this extra Awakening / DAI drama. To be honest, I’ve never even imported her into Awakening, because I knew she wouldn’t get to have Alistair with her. Someday I might try to work her into some version of the DA canon, but generally I’m happy leaving her with her happy ending.

[servantofclio]

9, 12, and 15 for Val?

Yay! These are fun asks. :D

9. Are they based off of you, in some way? 

I mean, we’re both blonde? We both care about people? But Val is mostly not much like me. Much more -- I wish I was this charismatic and fit and also had space magic, y’know?

12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: writing, drawing, edits, etc.)? 

Well, I haven’t really tried drawing her. I think the most tricky thing currently is plotting her way out of the mess she is in. In general, making sure she thinks like Shepard, and not like me.

15. What is something about your OC can make you laugh? 

Going through screenshots, particularly ME2 screenshots, where she’s often quite smirky. In general, her dorkier social moments with Garrus or Tali.

Thanks for asking!

[servantofclio]

8 for Zoe and 10 for Branwen?

Zoe Ryder

8. What (if anything) do you relate to within their character/story? 

Zoe’s genuinely curious about, and interested in, nearly everything she finds. She’s fascinated by the Remnant ruins and very curious about angara society and culture. She likes finding stuff out and learning stuff. So do I. :)

Branwen Lavellan

10. If they have an LI, how much of their character is tailored to be compatible to that person? 

Heh. Not. I knew who the DAI LIs were before I started playing, so I had a vague idea that she might be interested in the only male elf available, but I had no sense of the LIs’ personalities. Branwen’s relationship with Solas grew organically during gameplay (also influenced by headcanon, of course). I’m honestly not sure I would have been able to do it at all -- at least not as I did --if I’d known the full dimensions of his character going in. Branwen was able to treat Solas as an equal -- and, in fact, as someone possibly in need of her protection (as an apostate) -- only because she did not know who or what he truly was, and I don’t think their romance would be possible (for me) if she didn’t view him as an equal.

[servantofclio]

13 and 18 for your Shep!

I have a few Sheps, so I’ll pick one for each, thanks for asking!

13. How far past the canon events that take place in their world have you extended their story, if at all? 

For Val Shepard: Well, on the one hand, there’s The Other Commander Shepard, which goes pretty far past canon events into an AU, more or less.

If I’m not going into TOCS-land (in my mind there are two versions of her, which branch at the end of the game), then I think I have a few years of her post-game story mapped out in my head, at least:

She doesn’t tell anyone other than Garrus about what the Starchild told her. No one else knows that there was any kind of choice involved. (Sometimes she thinks she hallucinated the whole thing.

She remains a Spectre for several years, partly out of sheer stubbornness, but gets increasingly burned out as she hunts down an endless stream of pirates and petty criminals.

She eventually quits and heads up a cross-species youth development academy, along the lines of Grissom Academy.

18. What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC? 

For Julian: That he had a personality at all.

Okay, that’s not actually the most recent, but I honestly played him through two games without thinking much about him. And then I got into ME3 and the consequences of his poor choices came home to roost, and I felt awful for the guy.

So I guess more accurately it’s this: The ways in which he screwed up genuinely tear him up, and he has less confidence than most of my Shepards that the war is winnable at all (because he has fewer wins to give him confidence).

[servantofclio]

3 for Renee, 14 for Val!

Renee Shepard

3. How did you choose their name? 

... how did I choose her name???

I seriously don’t remember. I know it was partway through writing -- I’d written several scenes, and developed a sense of her appearance, before she had a first name. I just found an old email chain from 2012 where I said “I think I named her Renee” but I didn’t say why. Thanks, past!self.

Probably it was a combination of liking how it sounded and maybe looking for a different first initial? Something like that. Sorry, wish I had a better answer here!

Val Shepard

14. If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be? 

a) forward momentum

b) silver tongue

[servantofclio]

1, 4, 8, 10, for Val Shepard and Jocelyn Hawke, please!

Val Shepard

1 answered here

4 and 8 answered here

10. If they have an LI, how much of their character is tailored to be compatible to that person?

Some. I had in mind that she would end up with Garrus when I created her. For me, that meant complementary personalities (she also tends to go with her gut), compatible ethical systems, but very different tactics (vanguard vs. sniper). I tend to like my game OC/LI pairs to come from very different classes, though I know a lot of people like to have similar classes or specializations. I aimed for “different enough to keep things interesting, similar enough to support each other.”

Jocelyn Hawke

1. What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.)? 

Attitude toward magic. Her class is rogue, but I thought hard about how her apostate father would have raised her to think about magic, and how she’d respond as a result. (Short version: She thinks of magic as a neutral tool that can be used for good or ill, but she also thinks being close to her father and sister means she has magic all figured out.)

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts? 

Her father’s influence on her thinking about magic, again, and her father’s death, which left her largely in charge of the family.

8. What (if anything) do you relate to within their character/story? 

She has a tendency to latch onto other people and take their interests / goals as her own, and I think that’s a tendency I’ve had to curb in myself.

10. If they have an LI, how much of their character is tailored to be compatible to that person? 

Nothing at all, really. I went into the game unspoiled and only sort of knowing who the romance options even were, so I did not build her with a particular romance in mind. In-game, she romanced Anders, which certainly does influence the direction of her character; her unspoken years-long feelings for Varric are entirely the outgrowth of game writing and headcanoning, so also totally not planned from the beginning.