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Wow, this took an eternity. I’m sorry. I wrote so much and had to delete most of it again because it was ridiculously long.
2. Where did you find inspiration for your muse?
Short answer: Everywhere.
Long answer:
When watching the Sabaody arc I kinda wanted to see a marine’s reaction to learning about the slavery and other… bad things. I mean, they surely don’t tell every new recruit what’s up. That would be counterproductive for their reputation, as many people probably join thinking they’ll do good in the world.
As we didn’t get any marine’s reaction I created my own: A naiive female marine that was supposed to be devastated be learning that she spent her whole life dedicated to serve people that were even worse than the monsters (read: pirates) she had fought before.
I made her a captain. But I wanted her to have tight bonds with her whole crew. Since I couldn’t make as many individual characters as there are people in a marine captains crew I pulled the idea of a small special unit out of my ass and thought about what kind of jobs were necessary on a ship. Ironically the most helpful page was one that explained how pirate crews are build.
After I decided on which jobs would be occupied, I started fleshing out the characters occupying these. Going into detail for everyone would take to much time and space, so I’ll just list the most important influences.
1. Captain, Ránar: The name is taken from norse mythology, and morphed to not be Rana anymore, since someone else already has an OC called that. The way she will go is inspired by Madsen’s Kapitän (See next question).
For the others I used patterns: Family name taken from some sea bird, first name having a meaning including water (except Don and Lani). I know, it’s not very creative but they were only meant as placeholders in the beginning but then grew on me.
Another pattern: Faces taken from some German musicians, since I guessed those weren’t used by anyone yet. NOTE: After working on them for a while they barely resemble their faceclaims anymore, so I don’t know if I can even still use the term faceclaim. But I figured it might be interesting to see where they came from.
2. First mate, Don(val) Bekassin: He is just called Don, after an older Character of mine. His Sarkasm stems from my favourite character and main spurce of entertainment of a bookseries I read: Abu Dun. He was also supposed to have very dark skin and exaggerated in size, as that character, but those characteristics then went to Toja. His family name is just Bekassine minus the “e”. Faceclaim: Adel Tawil (link)
3. Quartermaster, Nero Turnstone: I honestly don’t know, what inspired him. I guess he is what I think of the “hero saving damsel in distress” trope. Except that he never get’s the chance to be that hero and his opinion on just being strong is enough to slay the dragon (or rather defeat the oponent) won’t get him very far. His stubborness and attitude towards defeat is inspired by Equilibrium’s Unbesiegt (See next question). “Nero” is greek for water, “turnstone” a bird and his faceclaim is Peter Fox (link).
4. Ship’s doctor, Kanja Mornell: He is heavily inspired by a real live doctor I had the misfortune to meet and the XXL-East Frisian (a TV-famous guy, nicknamed bone crusher, like Kanja). Bone crusher (German: Knochenbrecher) is actually the old East Frisian term for an orthopedist for horses. The show followed him around helping horses. It often looked rough, but it was effective. The reallife doctor was feared among the people of my home town before he retired. The hopital was drastically understaffed so, if you had to do an post-operation check up you were send to him. He was unsensitive, rough, didn’t care if you were in pain because of how he treated you, just explained why and that it would soon be over. He was a former field’s doctor and people think that’s were he got his roughness from. Going there was a nightmare. When people neded to have an operation they didn’t say “I hope everything will turn out fine”, they said “I hope I don’t need check ups afterwards”… Kanja is hindi for born in the water, Mornell comes from Mornellregenpfeifer, the German name for Dotterel , his faceclaim is Lasterbalk (link)
5. Cook, Kelvin Ostrero: I wanted a scary looking chemist as a cook. His fighting style is inspired by Honey Lemon from big hero six. Kelvin is scottish for small water, Ostrero is a bird, his faceclaim is Alec Völkel (link).
6. Navigator 1, Lani Plover:
and
7. Navigator 2, Mari Plover: I wanted an amazing Navigator but was afraid he would overshadow Nami, so I devided the talent onto two Navigators that act as a unit since birth: twins. One can “read” the sky and air, the other can “read” the waters. Their background is inspired by Roman policy to demand the sons of Germanic tribe leaders as a security to keep the borders peaceful. In exchange those sons were treated as Roman citizens including military training and such. Lani is hawaiian for sky, Mari is taken from mare, Italinan for sea. (Ringed) Plover is a bird and their faceclaim is Julien Bam (link) who is rather a youtuber but he also makes music, so I let it count.
8. Gunner, Sorav Skua: He is my answere to the question: What would happen if a Kuja Pirate were to bear a son. And what would happen if that woman died someday, after teaching her son some haki. That’s basically his backstory very simplyfied. Sorav is kurdish for red water, Skua is a bird, His face claim is Samy Deluxe (link).
9. Lookout, Narius Vanell: Inspired by the concept of a “Spielmann” (translation says minstrel, but translating back it’s different). Basically a medivial folk musician or band travelling around through towns and medivial markets drinking and sleeping around and simply enjoying life. But turned gay and added some elegance and dignity. Narius also stems from the greek word for water (like Nero), Vanell is from Vanellus Vanellus, the latin name for an arefria, his face claim is Blumio (link).
10. Helmsman, Avin Triel: As mentioned in my drawtober thingies, he is basically a mix of Till Eulenspiegel, a legendary prankster, and Klaus Störtebeker, a legendary pirate. Avin is a mix of Avid, kurdish for “like water” and Avina, old high German for “the great fighter”. Triel is the German word for curlew. His faceclaim is Maximilian Schlichter (link).
11. Ship wright, Toja Lobat: As mentioned before, part of his character stems from a character I like. Mainly his statue (which I exaggerated even more), his skin colour and his soft heart. All in all he’s just a big softy with too much strength. And he’s afraid of hights because I found the thought of someone who towers over most people to be afraid of hights hilerious. Toja is “native american” (the page didn’t specify which language exactly) for flowing water. Lobat comes from Phalaropus Lobatus, latin for red-necked phalarope. His face claim is Chima (link).
12. Bosun, Yuval Avosett: No real inspiration. I wanted someone weird. That’s him. Whenever I come up with an idea for something that would be considered weird behaviour I ask myself, if I can see him doing it. If yes, it becomes part of his character. Yuval is hebrew for source of water. Avosett comes from Recurvirostra Avosetta, latin for Avocet. His face claim is Niel Mitra (link).
12. Share a song that matches with your muse!
I have only really found two so far:
Unbesiegt by Equilibrium (link) for Nero
Kapitän by Madsen (link) for Ránar
both are German, but I’m sure there are translations somewhere out there.
@askthetheateroftruthcrew
