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Is your character patterned after anyone? Messages in this topic - RSS

malthaussen
malthaussen
Posts: 1060

10/29/2015
While my own is total invention, he does derive a certain inspiration from Sir Richard Francis Burton, swordsman, scholar, linguist, and explorer, who had a rather scandalous career back in Vicky's time. (best modern biographies are by Fawn Brodie and Byron Farwell; for lovers of speculative fiction, he appears as a main protagonist in Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series)

This is the gentleman who, among other accomplishments, made unexpurgated translations of The Thousand Nights and a Night and The Kama Sutra, almost discovered the Nile (a tragic story indeed), and completed the Hajj to both Medina and Mecca (in disguise, which may have had consequences both painful -- briefly -- and fatal, had he been discovered). The gentleman was, in short, a badass.

-- Mal

--
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
Will do all socials except Loitering or Private Evenings (all my Free Evenings are accounted for), and Affluent Photographer Betrayals only, please. I am not currently accepting calling cards.
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/malthaussen
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Kolanowski
Kolanowski
Posts: 148

11/5/2015
Not patterned after anyone in particular, but I did come up with my character's concept after playing a quest in TES5: Skyrim, called The Taste of Death. Basically, it ended with a lot of higher-ups turning out to be demon-worshipping cannibals. Add a little homicidal insanity, and there you have Mr Kolanowski.

As for the name, it's natively Polish. "Kazimierz" is a popular name in the country, roughly means "one who punishes". And "Kolanowski" I borrowed from Edmund Kolanowski, a Polish necrophiliac serial killer from the 1980s.

When you wanna design a psycho character, you go big or go home :P

--
Kazimierz Kolanowski, gentleman, scholar, humble servant of the Maw. Chaotic Evil. Open to all social actions & accepting almost all requests. Might sell you to Satan for a single corn chip.
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Dante Kinkade
Dante Kinkade
Posts: 50

12/15/2015
Myself of course, but a cooler version of me, one that would wear bow ties. I even had my boyfriend create a character so I could marry him.

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/dante~kinkade
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Estelle Knoht
Estelle Knoht
Posts: 1751

11/10/2015
My character is, of course, patterned after me!

I am not very perceptive, and that reflects my playing experience - most lore just flew over my head. I didn't even know the identity of Mr Chimes until several years in. I still can't read between the lines, and my character is also getting duped at every turn.

--
Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady.
I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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Zero
Zero
Posts: 136

6/16/2016
Daniel Ember was the first character I roleplayed seriously - I was 16 and in a forum based on Final Fantasy VIII. I played him for years, the role still feels really comfy, so whenever I want to make a quick character for a videogame I often recycle him.
The funny thing is, every time he starts roughly as the same character, but thanks to different settings, traumatic events and acquaintances he ends up as a radically different person.
(I even have a Daniel in a futuristic setting that knows about parallel dimensions, and wants to kill all his other selfves to acquire their powers. My own lazyness has become a plot point!)

--
SEND ME CHESS AND I SHALL RECIPROCATE

Daniel Ember - Once a doctor. Now something else.

My Twine games
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malthaussen
malthaussen
Posts: 1060

11/5/2015
"s Polish necrophiliac serial killer" prompts all sorts of speculative visions, yes.

-- Mal

--
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
Will do all socials except Loitering or Private Evenings (all my Free Evenings are accounted for), and Affluent Photographer Betrayals only, please. I am not currently accepting calling cards.
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/malthaussen
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Lady Eris
Lady Eris
Posts: 162

11/5/2015
Yes, sort-of-but-not-really. I set out to create a character who was as unlike me as possible, so apart from being female, fond of reading and cats, and almost painfully English, we are nothing alike.

Eris is measured, calm, unemotional - often to the point of coldness - and extremely ladylike. She is obsessed with clothes and matters of dress. She is tall, and has dark hair and eyes. She cannot cook to save herself. She comes from a large, deeply dysfunctional family and had a miserable childhood. Her embroidery is exceptionally neat.

None of these apply to me *in the slightest*. I find her great fun to write.

--
Lady Eris Psmith, Society darling, devoted wife. Dangerous when crossed. Accepts most social invitations. Distributor of Parabolan Kittens. Welcomes new acquaintances, especially those who write 'in character'.

William Templeton, Viscount Manningham, newcomer, gentleman, all-round good egg - accepting absolutely all invitations.
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MrUnderhill89
MrUnderhill89
Posts: 123

11/24/2015
It wasn't intentional by any means, but around the time I became an Author and started writing epic novels for the court, I started wondering "when was J.R.R. Tolkien born, again?" And I guess my username probably jinxed it, as well.

--
MrUnderhill89 - The Master Under the Hill
MrUnderhill77 - Doomed Northwards
I'll be happy to accept most social invites, but please no Affluent Photographer requests.
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Agatha Kizmesis
Agatha Kizmesis
Posts: 32

11/10/2015
My character Agatha was created to be as different from me as possible, but in a rather surprising twist she ended up resembling (physically and otherwise) the early 1880s activist Dorothea Dix, who reformed the prison system. And I had made Agatha before I'd ever heard of Dorothea!

--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Agatha~Kizmesis

Agatha Kizmesis: A Machiavellian zee captain, neddy woman, and actually a rather nice person.
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Sackville
Sackville
Posts: 295

11/3/2015
Yes.
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Estelle Knoht
Estelle Knoht
Posts: 1751

11/24/2015
malthaussen wrote:
3 January 1892, so we're talking serious child prodigy, here. But is your character a hobbit?

-- Mal


Short hedonistic people with a penchant for mushroom? Not a very high (heh) bar at all.

--
Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady.
I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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Charlotte_de_Witte
Charlotte_de_Witte
Posts: 360

11/24/2015
More Hobbits are always needed smile - Tolkien is very hard to beat. But for a birthday that fits along with a similar subject of work you could always have a late romantic composer like Greig, Sibellius, dare I say Wagner?

--
"Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar."

Social actions welcome. Only, send me dupes if you need help with the Affluent Photographer please, I like the bats! [And boxed kitties, and extreme gardening]- Thank-you!

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Charlotte%20de%20Witte
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malthaussen
malthaussen
Posts: 1060

11/24/2015
Since he's a novelist, Thomas Hardy would fit better. Or, if he's a fantasy writer, maybe Lord Dunsany, although the latter would be pretty young, too (15, to be precise). Or Jerome K. Jerome, maybe?

-- Mal
edited by malthaussen on 11/24/2015

--
"Of two choices, I always take the third."
Will do all socials except Loitering or Private Evenings (all my Free Evenings are accounted for), and Affluent Photographer Betrayals only, please. I am not currently accepting calling cards.
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/malthaussen
+1 link
Charlotte_de_Witte
Charlotte_de_Witte
Posts: 360

11/24/2015
I was thinking in terms of troll and dwarf content really - but I'll very happily defer to better knowledge :-) - What are your thoughts MrUnderhill89?

--
"Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar."

Social actions welcome. Only, send me dupes if you need help with the Affluent Photographer please, I like the bats! [And boxed kitties, and extreme gardening]- Thank-you!

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Charlotte%20de%20Witte
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Rackenhammer
Rackenhammer
Posts: 354

11/25/2015
Mathieu Pmsith (as his name might imply) took a certain degree of inspiration from Rupert Psmith, one of P.G. Wodehouse's early classic characters. Although, as he's developed, he's turned into something more along the lines of Gabriel Syme from Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday. Which makes sense, given that G.K.C. was one of the setting inspirations for Fallen London. That does mean, though, that my character is technically more Edwardian than Victorian, at least in his inspirations.

--
"DO NOT TRUST HAPPY ENDINGS. DO NOT FEAR SAD ENDINGS... NEITHER ARE ENDINGS."
~
Mathieu Psmith: The Bard of Lost Children, loving husband, and a fixture of the artistic set. Can never resist making a show of things...

Irene Psmith: Adopted Daughter of Mathieu. Specializes in Information, Acquisitions, and the Acquisition of Information.

Vaughan Montblanc: Once a frontiersman of Western Canada, he now practices medicine in London. His discretion may be absolutely trusted.
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Rysiek
Rysiek
Posts: 693

12/11/2015
I actually intend to create a character called Nobby, who will be watchfull and shadowy. He will be modeled after Nobby Nobbs from the discworld. I sipose he is a he and a human, but what cameo and gender should I choose?


  • --
    The silesian Detective
    http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Rysiek
    The incredible Warsovian. She certainly didn't steal your diamond necklace. That idea is RIDICULOUS...
    http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Maria~Konstantynopolska
    The silesian vengeance seeker
    http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Agata~Grym


    I apologize for any and all anachronisms. I am too lazy to check some facts if I am sure they are from the 1890s or sometimes think they are.

    Oh, and by the way, I am not polish, I am GERMAN to clarify for heavens sake... tylko po polsku mowie. Um Himmelswillen...
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    Kylestien
    Kylestien
    Posts: 749

    12/11/2015
    Don't know about Cameo but only appropriate gender is the third one which makes it not sure.

    --
    I will accept all actions, though I hold the right to refuse for my own reasons. However, if you explain WHY you send me a harmful action like Loitering or Dantes,And I feel the reason good, I will consider it more. http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Kylestien

    Persuasive patron. You want a lesson, send me a message asking for one.
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    La Melusine
    La Melusine
    Posts: 7

    12/12/2015
    There's only one La Melusine. Though she's changeable and accounts of her in medieval folk tales vary.

    --
    "'Ha, valyaunt Serseul, how ofte haue I sene your mortal enemyes tofore your presence that neuer ye were aferd, and now for a serpent of femenyne nature ye shake for fere..."
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    Pyrodinium
    Pyrodinium
    Posts: 639

    12/12/2015
    I view Rudolph (my alt) as someone similar to the Thing from Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep". It might be hideous and smelly but it's a benevolent entity.

    --
    My profiles: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Pyrodinium
    (A Monster hunter on the hunt of his twin brother's killer. Overprotective dad of his twin's daughter)
    http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Rudolph~of~Taured
    (an indeterminate person of potentially rubbery lineage)
    * All social actions except photographers and loitering welcome!
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    JL
    JL
    Posts: 30

    12/15/2015
    Morcant is an original character I have used before in a different online game (the Discworld MUD, in fact), but transplanted away from that quirky comedic-fantasy setting, he's developed into a slightly different person. Quieter, and visibly more saturnine, for a start, but he's still as eternally inquisitive as ever, if slightly less lethal now that he's a consulting detective instead of an Assassin (most days).

    --
    Joseph Morcant, the Wan Detective -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Morcant

    Joscelin Kenway, the Peligin Lurker -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Joscelin%20Kenway

    Virginie Vernet, the Sceptical Artist -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Virginie%20Vernet
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    Guest

    11/3/2015
    • the truthseeker is my own unique invention taking different personas in games (and alternate realities) he/she/it shows up in. He often portrays "what happens when you seek the truth, and why knowing too much has its own burden." Regrettably, I found out about FL after the Eaten storyline was closed, as this fate seemed inevitable for that concept. But Midnighter is as close as he can currently get to realizing how useless these "games of life" are in FL and doing anything to forget about it. (Or as he would say, if the former Midnighter's St. Joshua Shrine of Irrigo didn't make him forget this. What happened to the former Midnighter whose shrine the truthseeker now uses? That too is best lost to Irrigo....) [There is another reason I also support St. Joshua, but that is a IRL secret reason.]
    • Snow Belie is somewhat a cross between Caligula meets Snow White...and all the mixed up trouble that it sounds like. Due to the Grimm connection, she obviously, unquestionably, had to become an Author. (And now all the weird stuff she has seen, she will become a Correspondent one day...if she ever can stop having fun with her Nights on the Town and Wine Cellars.)
    • Nobby Longshanks is just my concept on what an independent-streaked Urchin (specifically the Knotted Sock Gang) would be like after he (or any sex or non-sex biologically speaking being's identity in the gangs; this one just happened to be created male,) was too old to still be an urchin. After all, those that are afflicted with Out you go, longshanks have to do something else notable besides just Connected: Criminals
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    Diptych
    Diptych
    Administrator
    Posts: 3493

    10/29/2015
    Hubris is heavily influenced by Grimseby Roylott, the swaggering villain of the Sherlock Holmes story The Speckled Band, though still more cunning and brutal - he's verging being on a Moriarty and a Colonel Moran in one at this point. Juniper began as something of an homage to the film Hugo, though she went in quite a different direction in the end.

    --
    Sir Frederick, the Libertarian Esotericist. Lord Hubris, the Bloody Baron.
    Juniper Brown, the Ill-Fated Orphan. Esther Ellis-Hall, the Fashionable Fabian.
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    Sestina Valdis
    Sestina Valdis
    Posts: 210

    10/29/2015
    Carlotta Valdis from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo! But I don't think Sestina-the-character resembles Carlotta-the-character very much, except in name. As Mal and Zareen Bakara have pointed out, the sestina is also a poetic form (that, ironically, I dislike writing in because I can never quite get things right), which is where I got the first name from...

    To be honest, she's basically a female version of me who is a lot more... unrestrained. Call her a kind of ideal-I who is also emphatically a non-ideal-I. I don't want to use the word 'fantasy'... Rather I think she's a bit of a 'thought experiment' in how my life might turn out if I were born in an underground version of London and gave myself over to hedonism. Our writing styles are quite identical (which is hardly surprising, is it? I'm guessing that all our characters' 'works' are written by us, just as our characters are. The poems that Sestina wrote are certainly mine, for better or worse... But I am not British).

    TL;DR: I am a bit of an egotist, I guess.
    edited by Sestina Valdis on 10/29/2015

    --
    Sestina Valdis, the Saccharine Satirist.
    Appearance and Misc. Accoutrements
    A Past Scattered Across Discarded Stockings

    Fei Xue, the Artful Assassin.
    Self

    Edward de Riere, the Barebones Baron.

    Avatar by Daniel Ilinca.
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    John Savage
    John Savage
    Posts: 198

    11/17/2015
    Honestly... I am using a name that I have been working with in several incarnations (the name is actually stolen from A Brave New World).... but since I am so new to FL, having come over from Sunless Sea, I am feeling out the lndscape, as it were. As such, I used only a vague background to start, and am allowing my character to waft through the town, associating with all sorts... just to see what seems to stick....

    for example.... I planned to focus on Shadowy first... but quickly found my Dangerous climbing to lofty heights.... then I caught a GREAT Watchful run.... so Shadowy is now my 3rd highest stat....

    My plan at this point is to continue to let the story take me.... and see where I end up....

    --
    If at first you don't succeed, shoot it again.
    http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/John~Savage

    Scandal and suspicion! Suspicion and scandal! I miss the old days when only blood mattered.
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    Charlotte_de_Witte
    Charlotte_de_Witte
    Posts: 360

    11/18/2015
    At creation it was the amazing Alexandra David-Néel - but as I've got further into the setting, and especial after finding the forums, I'm definitely channeling Aimée Crocker. Come at me in K+C and you'll get Elizabeth Bathory ;-p

    --
    "Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar."

    Social actions welcome. Only, send me dupes if you need help with the Affluent Photographer please, I like the bats! [And boxed kitties, and extreme gardening]- Thank-you!

    http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Charlotte%20de%20Witte
    +1 link
    malthaussen
    malthaussen
    Posts: 1060

    11/24/2015
    3 January 1892, so we're talking serious child prodigy, here. But is your character a hobbit?

    -- Mal

    --
    "Of two choices, I always take the third."
    Will do all socials except Loitering or Private Evenings (all my Free Evenings are accounted for), and Affluent Photographer Betrayals only, please. I am not currently accepting calling cards.
    http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/malthaussen
    +1 link
    Catherine Raymond
    Catherine Raymond
    Posts: 2518

    11/6/2015
    Nope. My main character makes, as best as I can manage, the choice I personally would make if I were spirited to the Neath and awoke in New Newgate Prison. My alt is more of an experiment. She is more opportunistic than I or my main character, more venal, and more willing to act immorally or unethically for personal gain.

    --
    Cathy Raymond
    http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/cathyr19355

    Catherine Raymond aka Mrs. Rykar Malkus http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Catherine%20Raymond (Gone NORTH)
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    Eichlos
    Eichlos
    Posts: 11

    6/16/2016
    Eichlos isn't the character's name. It is a title. The original was a man or prophet that became something else. Now it is passed on to its descendants.

    Roughly translated Eichlos is Oakless, which is the sir name of a group of characters I use. Usually I'm playing the offspring of the original. In that regard the character has a lot in common with Arthur Jermyn from the H.P. Lovecraft story that bears his name. The character's path in the Neath has been similar to that of Richard Upton Pickman and Randolph Carter (also from Lovecraft).

    Its [sex: female; gender: male; species: not exactly human anymore] draws its personality mostly from C. G. B. Spender (the Cigarette Smoking Man). And actually these forums formed that personality. Some clever individual on these boards asked what our characters would be like in the next city. I never got around to actually responding in that thread but thinking about it, but the nom de guerre that came to mind was the Smoking Ambassador. The lingual association that followed is what has shaped the personality of the character.

    --
    Eichlos
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    malthaussen
    malthaussen
    Posts: 1060

    6/23/2016
    @Beau: To splice metaphors a bit, he might find that the Great Chain of Being is something that will bind him unless he learns to cast it off.

    -- Mal

    --
    "Of two choices, I always take the third."
    Will do all socials except Loitering or Private Evenings (all my Free Evenings are accounted for), and Affluent Photographer Betrayals only, please. I am not currently accepting calling cards.
    http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/malthaussen
    +1 link
    Myrto
    Myrto
    Posts: 209

    12/19/2015
    This is so interesting!

    I had been playing with Myrto, my main character, for about a year before their character really coalesced. It turns out that, while I was making the choices for Myrto as a pretty mercenary spy who cares for no one, I also chose the Nemesis ambition for them, which is based on a love story. And it recently came to me that I'm basing this character heavily on Snape from the Harry Potter books. I hadn't realized it until I picked up my ambition again after leaving it alone for awhile. So, like Severus Snape, Myrto is mostly in the game for Myrto's own interests, but motivating the cold, calculating exterior of this mysterious person is love.

    Edith is much easier. She's an opposite version of me: wants to be famous, is willing to do anything to be in front of a crowd, wanted to be governor of Port Carnelian since the day it became available, etc.

    And Jack is kind of inspired by the urchin gangs of Fallen London itself. Jack's family is a group of street kids.

    --
    Myrto, a mysterious veteran spy who is only on their own side. Married to navchaa!
    Edith Alpha Doyle, social climber with grand ambitions; Correspondent who would be happy to assist you in whatever way she can.
    , teenage orphan who came to the Neath to pursue a career in crime; monster-hunter. Currently on the Seeking road.
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