#22 Vitorio Marudi
Name: Vitorio Marudi
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 44/Male/Psuedo-Mediterranean
Main Goal: Grow Elsewhere Materials Inc as big and powerful as possible.
Occupation: Owner/Founder of Elsewhere Materials Incorporated
Motivation: Greed, Care for the peoples of Sendrineth
Inner Need: Success
Flaw: Not keen on diplomacy, unconcerned with the fate of the worlds his company plunders
Good/Bad Habits: Eats too much, smokes cigars, flaunts wealth through excessive gold jewelry
Secret: Several of the worlds EMI plunders are already inhabited by sapient life forms.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Savvy businessman, very organized and punctual.
Quirks: Always wears a blue satin jumpsuit and plenty of gold jewelry. Almost always on his cell phone.
Attitude: Jolly, Paternal
Dialogue Style: Lots of imperatives, clipped sentence fragments, and repeats of the person’s name.
Backstory/Description: During the Renaissance brought on by Bantas Tempiezo’s inventions, businessmen all throughout Sendrineth were wondering if there was some way to travel to the paralel universes to harvest resources from them, since Sendrineth’s only real landmass consisted of a single small, resource-starved continent and a few islands. When a team of scientists finally invented the first inter-dimensional portal, Marudi’s great-great-grandfather was there with his check book. Using the inter-dimensional technology, Elsewhere Materials Incorporated was founded to harvest resources from other dimensions. Using the resources of the other dimensions, Sendrineth became a sprawling, multi-layered city complex where the only law is that given by the wealthy corporation owners to their laborers. Vitorio, groomed all his life to inherit EMI from his father, learned that happy workers are productive workers, so his workers receive some of the nicest treatment in Sendrineth. Regardless, a charismatic anti-establishment revolutionary has emerged and is leading organized riots against all forms of industry. Marudi has not responded well to this, and refuses to negotiate with the revolutionaries, since he sees nothing wrong with their treatment.
Yep, another Sendrineth one. EMI was my army in Picture Wars, and I made this setting around them. This one gives some of the backstory as to what happened after Bantas Tempiezo’s (http://www.30characters.com/2010/11/21/21-bantas-tempiezo/) Renaissance. I have at least two more characters planned for this setting.
About this character in particular: I’m sick and tired of evil CEOs in our media, particularly sci-fi movies. Think: Avatar, District 9, Repo Men, hell, even Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Of course, there are no decent CEOs, eh, Hollywood? I wanted this guy to be a decent, relatable guy, who’s mostly good despite a little moral ambiguity. You know, like everyone else.
#21 Bantas Tempiezo
Name: Bantas Tempiezo
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 57/Male/Pseudo-Mediterranean
Main Goal: Unlock the secrets of the elements and make enough money to live out his autumn years in peace.
Occupation: Paper maker/Renaissance-man/inventor
Motivation: Curiosity
Inner Need: Peace and quiet
Flaw: Kind of lazy, only works about four to six hours a day.
Good/Bad Habits: Sleeps late, goes to bed early, pretends to be addled by his age more than he actually is to excuse his laziness.
Secret: Has resorted to usury to make enough money for his papermaking business.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Very skilled paper maker, inquisitive, intelligent mind, good with his hands.
Quirks: Wears a hat of folded paper to show his profession as paper maker.
Attitude: Weary
Dialogue Style: Quiet, friendly, rambling.
Backstory/Description: Bantas Tempiezo was just an ordinary paper maker in the land of Sendrineth when the Great Shift occurred. The Vwamic Leviathans, piscine, god-like entities, no longer spoke to the priests of Sendrineth, and more curiously fire, earth, and water began to occasionally rain down from the sky. Intrigued, Tempiezo collected some of the strange material to study, and concluded that it was not mundane fire, earth, or water, but rather they were the fundamental building blocks of all matter, which he termed “elements.” Experimenting further, he invented several crude devices incorporating the elements, among them one he called “Tempiezo’s Accumulator,” a device that would extract the three elements (with a fourth one, he discovered, air) for use in his experiments. Important though it was, a much more influential device turned out to be “Tempiezo’s Resonator,” a device he built in an experiment to try and find out where the elements were coming from. Using it, he discovered that the elements came from a completely different universe, one among countless, perhaps infinite, others. Tempiezo’s inventions sparked a Renaissance of elemental technology on Sendrineth, and he left the world much different than it was when he came into it.
What’s that? Yet another setting for my characters? My dear friends, you will find that I have a score of those! Yes, I originally got the idea for this from my army in an old internet game called Picture Wars. I shall elaborate in future posts, which may be backed again, for I am off to my mother’s house for this Thanksgiving holiday.
#20 Heavy Metal King Akkarrokk Kivokak
Name: Heavy Metal King Akkarrokk Kivokak
Species: Ogre (mutant human)
Age/Sex/Race: 44/Male/N/A
Main Goal: Maintain his control over the Iron Sands Desert and crush all who oppose him.
Occupation: Monarch/Warlord
Motivation: Lust for Power
Inner Need: Control over others
Flaw: Not very bright, takes what he wants without asking, kills whoever opposes him
Good/Bad Habits: Never trusts anyone, always goes to give orders in person so he can bully the subordinate.
Secret: He installed a secret self-destruct mechanism in every piece of ancient technology he gives to his henchmen, the remote for which he keeps on his person at all times.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Biggest, toughest ogre of the Kivokak tribe. Inspires fear and respect into the other ogres, if not hatred and jealousy.
Quirks: Carries only an iron club for himself and gives his entourage the high-tech weapons so he can order them to kill while he watches.
Attitude: Morbidly Cheerful, Cruel, Menacing
Dialogue Style: Wry, sarcastic, loud, intimidating, full of mean-spirited threats and insults.
Backstory/Description: Akkarrokk was, by pure accident of birth, the biggest, toughest ogre of his clan, the Kivokaks. Growing up he’d fight and damn-near kill anyone who so much as looked at him funny, and when he was a young man he challenged the king of his clan to a fight, killing him in the process. Akkarrokk then declared himself king, but was not content to rule over just one ogre clan. He had heard tales of ancient humans using powerful weapons and technology, so he sent out his scouts to find him a learned human. Eventually they found Frakkus, a servant of a long-dead forge god, and his son, Russ. Frakkus refused to make them weapons, and thus was bludgeoned to death. Seeing this, Russ agreed, and crafted and restored scores of weapons and technology for him, such as giant dune bikes made from bisected automobiles, crude firearms and cannons, even a few suits of powered-armor scaled up for ogre use. Using these weapons, Akkarrokk and his men rode out to conquer all the twelve other ogre clans and made their kings swear oathes of fealty. Having conquered such a vast kingdom with his metal weapons, Akkarrokk took on the title of Heavy Metal King and now rules his territory with extreme cruelty.
Yeah, remember this guy (http://stoneman123.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2to5l9)? He’s the one Akkarrokk gets his weapons from! I don’t know about you guys, but I think that’s pretty cool.
#19 Florence Reine le Téméraire de San Marais
Name: Florence Reine le Téméraire de San Marais
Species: Maraian (mutated human)
Age/Sex/Race: 364/Female/N/A
Main Goal: Turn San Marais into a thriving trading city to bring in plenty of men
Occupation: Monarch
Motivation: Love for her people and her city
Inner Need: To improve the lives of her people and her city
Flaw: Overly optimistic, too trusting, bold, a little reckless
Good/Bad Habits: Stays cooped up in her castle, preferring to rule through emissaries. Kind of lazy.
Secret: Frequently makes treaties with the kroi (pig-people also living in the swamp) to turn them against each other before betraying and enslaving them.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Very good liar, a schrewd politician, has many connections both in and out of the city of San Marais
Quirks: Eschews formal garb in favor of more fashionable apparel. Had her throne replaced by a hammock.
Attitude: Lax, warm, friendly
Dialogue Style: Cordial, polite, a little coquettish
Backstory/Description: On the southern coast of the Bile Swamps there is the glimmering canal city of San Marais, inhabited by a race of long-lived tailed women. This city is ruled by a queen who is revered like a saint, of which there have been two. Being the third queen after her mother died about two-hundred years ago, Florence le Téméraire was young, energetic, and ambitious. Needing un-mutated human males as part of their unique semi-parthenogenic life cycle, Florence sought to turn her city into a trading empire to bring in more such specimens. During her rule she has sent out ambassadors and explorers to make deals to trade with foreign powers, mostly in the commerce of slaves. The savage kroi, monstrous pig-like humanoids who also live in the Bile Swamps, are routinely enslaved and exported to other lands in exchange for human males. Florence’s policies are mostly favored by her subjects, and she is widely approved by all but a few die-hard isolationists.
Yeah, this one’s a little different from the others since it’s entirely digital, made in GIMP. I usually draw the characters by hand, ink them, scan them, then color them in GIMP, but I think I like this technique better.
#18 Candlesleer
Name: Candlesleer
Species: Giant Floating Head (severely mutated human)
Age/Sex/Race: 88/Male/N/A
Main Goal: Make his tribe survive
Occupation: Tribal chieftain of a tribe of floating heads
Motivation: Survival
Inner Need: Respect, success
Flaw: Reactionary, short tempered, blood thirsty
Good/Bad Habits: Leads by example, first to rise, first to rest. Sees all criticism or hesitation as a challenge to his authority.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Very good memory, knows the migration patterns of animals, good strategist.
Quirks: Inexplicably has four constantly-burning candles growing out of his tentacle-eyeballs. Gets offended whenever somebody asks about them.
Attitude: Jovial
Dialogue Style: Verbose, often repeats whole sentences with slight variation between them. Very loud.
Backstory/Description: In the frozen tundra of the Sacred Lands live a race of floating head people, who call their land Sacred and declare it a sin to touch it, hence they levitate everywhere. Candlesleer was born into one of the several semi-nomadic tribes of floating heads, led by his father, their incompetant and forgetful chieftain. When Candlesleer was barely 25, the age of sexual maturity in his people, his father declared him the new chieftain. Though the other heads were skeptical, at first, Candlesleer won their respect by memorizing the migration patterns of animals and using that knowledge to help his people find food. His tribe has thrived ever since.
Alright, here’s another three from my post apocalyptic campaign. I like this setting; it’s easy to come up with characters for it. However, I’m more than ready to be done with this competition. This is starting to wear me out.
#17 Skyman
Name: Skyman
Species: Darkraker (mutant human)
Age/Sex/Race: 14/Male/N/A
Main Goal: Steal some fine swag, buy/build/forcibly take a subterranean lair of some sort, take a few wives and have a few dozen children.
Occupation: None
Motivation: Greed, Lust
Inner Need: Loot and women
Flaw: Crude, uncivilized, ignorant, nearly unusable hands, kind of a coward
Good/Bad Habits: Steals a LOT
Secret: Tries not to broadcast the fact that he’ll gladly slit someone’s throat for fun and/or profit.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Very stealthy, deadly claws instead of fingers or toes, great climber, can control light with his mind.
Attitude: Gruff, mean
Dialogue Style: Caveman talk (“Give money or I kill you!”)
Backstory/Description: Skyman was born into a nest of darkrakers and was given the name of Skyman for his latent ability to control light (like the sky, or whatever). However, he got sick and tired of their leader, Badjaw, pushing them around, so using his light control powers to shade his albino skin from the sun he set off on his own, looting and killing on a whim.
Here’s the third post-apocalyptic guy, also hired by Sargonovus to round out the power trio. Three is powerful number.
#16 Benjamin Arthur Fitzgerald, Private 1st Class
Name: Benjamin Arthur Fitzgerald, Private 1st Class
Species: Charred (mutant human)
Age/Sex/Race: 1059/Male/N/A
Main Goal: To remember all of his past
Occupation: Mercenary/Bodyguard
Motivation: Unease at the huge gaps in his memory
Inner Need: Survival
Flaw: Can’t remember anything specific from more than 50-60 years ago. Sort of “out there,” like he was half asleep constantly.
Good/Bad Habits: Follows orders of his current employer/superior without question, comment, or complaint.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Military training, swordplay, eats and drinks half as much as a normal human, immune to disease, poison, and radiation. Will live indefinitely.
Quirks: Gives his full military designation, Benjamin Arthur Fitzgerald, Private 1st Class, Serial Number 34-886-542, Columbian Army 14th Infantry Division, even though the Columbian Army and Columbia itself were both destroyed in the Backlash.
Attitude: Distant, Drowzy, Docile
Dialogue Style: Extremely terse, sometimes just in single words. Longer thoughts punctuated with “Sir!”
Backstory/Description: Benjamin Arthur Fitzgerald was a soldier in the Columbian Army deployed in Aryabrata during the war with the gods. When the gods ended the world in the Backlash, he was exposed to the raw light of creation, which seared off his flesh but also made him immortal. He has since wandered the lands of Aryabrata for 1000 years, selling his services as a mercenary or bodyguard for whatever they will pay, all the while steadily losing his long-term memory.
Here’s another guy from that same post-apocalyptic setting. I envisioned him as being hired by Sargonovus as a bodyguard.
#15 Sargonovus
Name: Sargonovus
Species: Egghead (mutant human)
Age/Sex/Race: 29/Male/Caucasian
Main Goal: Build a vast empire through conquest.
Occupation: Pre-Backlash Weapons Expert
Motivation: Ambition
Inner Need: Power, Knowledge
Flaw: Arrogant, Selfish, Bossy
Good/Bad Habits: Maintains an old Glock very well. Always gives orders assuming they will be followed without question and gets offended when they are.
Secret: His secret plan to acquire the ultimate weapon, a slaymachine.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Highly analytical, tactical mind. Extremely knowledgable in pre-Backlash weapons and history. Decent craftsman with metal.
Quirks: Always wears an old lab coat his father gave him.
Attitude: Smug
Dialogue Style: Accent kind of like the 20’s, uses lots of informal addresses (“pal, buddy, buster, slick”).
Backstory/Description: Sargonovus’s parents could barely stand each other, both being as arrogant as he was. After he was born, his father, Paracaesar, got into a fight with his mother and left her, taking Sargonovus with him. Under his father’s tutelage he learned all about scavenging and repairing pre-Backlash weapons, as well as their history gleaned from a few tattered textbooks. When Sargonovus was 19, he and his father tired of each other and parted ways. Now Sargonovus wanders Southwood looking to build himself an empire using the most powerful of pre-Backlash weapons, a slaymachine, a weapon made from the blood of the slain forge god Shorus.
Yeah, this guy (and the next three or more) are from a post-apocalyptic setting I made for the roleplaying game Mutant Future, where the world was destroyed after a war with the gods, wherein the gods sacrificed most of their power to bathe the world in the light of creation, thus mutation most of the life forms on the planet. Incidentally, here’s another guy I made for this setting: http://stoneman123.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2to5l9
#14 Khariton the Curse Master
Name: Khariton the Curse Master
Species: Machine
Main Goal: To discover and dispel all curses in the world
Occupation: Dispeller of curses
Motivation: Loyalty, Curiosity
Inner Need: To be useful
Flaw: Blindly Obedient
Good/Bad Habits: Only speaks when powering up or when spoken to.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Can speak any language he hears, has a photographic memory, and has the ability to dispel any curse he can see through his glass eye.
Quirks: Requires vodka to function, implores people to move their face in front of his lens when speaking to him.
Attitude: Pleasant, Helpful
Dialogue Style: Thick Russian accent, speaks very clearly and politely
Backstory/Description: Svarog the Bright, rival to countless jealous wizards and witches, was very frequently cursed by his rivals. Some were trivial, others life-threatening, but all of them were annoying. In order to save himself some time, he constructed a mechanical box out of mage-gold and brought it to life. Thus was born Khariton the Curse Master, who faithfully serves his master by dispelling any and all curses inflicted on him.
#13 Svarog the Bright
Name: Svarog Kuznetsov the Bright
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 55/Male/White
Main Goal: Chart and explore the Outside in its entirety.
Occupation: Wizard
Motivation: Curiosity/Greed
Inner Need: Comprehension
Flaw: Cruel, Greedy
Good/Bad Habits: Mumbles to himself almost constantly, Show off, Likes his vodka a little too much
Secret: The secret ritual of entering the Outside, along with a score of other magical secrets.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Skilled wizard and alchemist who knows how to enter a surreal other-realm called the Outside. Can turn invisible, hypnotize people, curse people to sleep forever until they die, and call storms. Knows a good bit of several trades, among them tailoring, glassblowing, papermaking, and smithing.
Quirks: Always wears a pair of obsidian spectacles, a mage-gold hat, and a mage-gold lined cloak.
Attitude: Jovial
Dialogue Style: Thick Russian accent, several tasteless jokes.
Backstory/Description: When Svarog Kuznetsov was but a child in a backwater Russian village he struggled to find his trade. He had difficulty taking orders, so he was apprenticed to many tradesmen until one night his drunken, frustrated father beat him. He ran away, whereupon he stumbled on the hidden lair of a long dead wizard. The wizard, Maksim the Gaunt, lingered as a ghost, since he had taken no apprentice. He accepted Svarog and trained him until he knew everything he knew, then Maksim faded away. Svarog continued living in the old wizard’s house, researching magic and trying to find the philospher’s stone, among other projects. During one experiment he inadvertantly discovered a way to transport himself to a surreal, dream-like realm he dubbed the Outside, and bring things back with him. It was in this way he discovered mage-gold, a metal similar to gold except much brighter, much lighter, and much more conductive to magic. He has since gained scores of enemies who wish to steal his secrets, and still more customers who are willing to buy it from him.
#12 Calvin “Cool Whip” White
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Name: Charles “Cool Whip” White
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 25/Male/Black
Main Goal: To enslave the entire human race as his own gang.
Occupation: Gang Leader/Minion of Satan
Motivation: Blood lust/Testosterone
Inner Need: Power
Flaw: Short tempered, reactionary, murderous psychopath
Good/Bad Habits: Always fights alone, refuses to kill children below the age of ten. Hardly ever sleeps, eats, or bathes and sometimes cuts himself when bored.
Secret: Actually feels kind of guilty about sacrificing his grandmother.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Expert swordsman, somewhat proficient marksman, secret knowledge of the drug trade, can survive great amounts of physical harm, capable of summoning sudden bursts of superhuman strength, can teleport to and from Hell a few times a day.
Quirks: Always combs his afro and polishes his sword after a fight. Never takes off his sunglasses.
Attitude: Menacing
Dialogue Style: Uses a strong urban dialect with many swears and racial slurs.
Backstory/Description: Charles White was born to a common prostitute who died of ketamine injection when he was four. He was left in the house of his austere Christian grandmother who was nearly immobile from arthritis. Growing up without a father, he turned to gang for support and took on the name of “Cool Whip.” He hated taking orders, however, so when he was 16 he got into a fight with the gang leader over control. The leader and six other gang members all ganged up on him, beat him bloody and left him for dead in a dumpster. He died, and while his soul was in limbo the Devil spoke to him, offering him a deal. He was returned to Earth, whereupon he went home and strangled his helpless grandmother. The murder of the innocent fulfilled his pact, and he was rewarded with his powers and a sword forged in the fires of Hell. He then proceeded to slaughter the members of his former gang and recruit members for a new one.
#11 Roskus “Sunrise” Miller
Name: Roskus “Sunrise” Miller
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 19/Male/White
Main Goal: Fame, Fortune, Fighting
Occupation: Superhero
Motivation: Testosterone/Poverty/Boredom
Inner Need: Excitement
Flaw: Rash, Stubborn, Violent
Good/Bad Habits: Gets his buck every year, does poorly in school, gets into fights very frequently
Secret: His powers and those of his cousin Haley, also that he has a crush on Haley
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Knows how to hunt, fish, and is a decent mechanic, also has extremely powerful but extremely short ranged psychic powers, mostly used to power his punches and kicks, to allow him to leap great heights, and to deflect projectiles.
Quirks: Always wears hunting boots or some other camoflauge article.
Attitude: Cocky
Dialogue Style: Fast, loose, thick southern drawl
Backstory/Description: Roskus was an only child of a mechanic, living in the same trailer park as his cousin Haley. He would always pick fights with whoever would fight with him. During one particularly close fight, when four other guys ganged up on him, he discovered his psychic powers and used them to great effect to win the fight, breaking a few of their bones in the process. Naturally, the only course of action was to become a superhero, and when he saw a wap kid wearing a rising sun hoodie, beat him up and stole it from him, he decided on the moniker of “Sunrise.”
Ahh! Four days behind! Jeez, I’ve been busy lately, hence the poor quality. This one’s related to this one (http://www.30characters.com/2010/11/10/10-haley-midnight-blaire/).
#10 Haley “Midnight” Blaire
Name: Haley “Midnight” Blaire
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 14/Female/White
Main Goal: Get a job as a nurse and get out of her hometown.
Occupation: None/Superhero
Motivation: Fear/Self Interest
Inner Need: Safety
Flaw: Cowardly and will do anything to save herself
Good/Bad Habits: Does all her chores and studies well, but is too afraid to say something that might offend someone, even if they totally deserve it.
Secret: Her powers and those of her cousin Roskus and the fact that some of her male family members have been making sexual advances on her.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Has psychic powers like flight, telekinesis, telepathy, invisibility, ESP, and teleportation, but they all come and go sporadically. Very good at housework like cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc.
Quirks: Keeps a can of pepper spray on her person, despite her powers.
Attitude: Shy
Dialogue Style: Quiet, slow, thick Southern drawl.
Backstory/Description: Haley Blaire was the youngest of four children growing up in a trailer park to two redneck parents. The four children were always responsible for all of the housework around the family’s trailer, but Haley usually ended up doing most of it due to her shy, submissive personality. When she started to develop, several male members of her family, cousins mostly, began to make sexual comments and advances on her. She resisted by becoming even more withdrawn. Fortunately for her, when she was fourteen she discovered that some combination of poor breeding, polluted water, and pure dumb luck had given her psychic powers. She kept them a secret until her mind reading powers allowed her to sense that one of her cousins, Roskus Miller, was similarly gifted. She told him her secret, and at his urging agreed to join him in becoming super heroes, taking on the name of “Midnight.”
Yeah, this was the third “catch up” picture I did, so it’s kind of sloppy (sloppier, rather). I’ll probably do her cousin/partner tomorrow.
#9 Long Fengbao Jian
Name: Long Fengbao Jian
Species: Dragon
Age/Sex/Race: 143/Male/N/A
Main Goal: Destroy all enemies of the Verdant Emperor.
Occupation: Demon hunter/Spy/Secret Police
Motivation: Loyalty
Inner Need: Praise
Flaw: Blindly Obedient
Good/Bad Habits: Takes very good care of his weapons, but sometimes “zones out” while flying over long distances when he should be looking for demons.
Secret: Embellishes and exaggerates his own accomplishments to earn the endearment of his superiors.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Has a magic sword that can whip up storms, a magic jade eye that can spot demons, a blade on his tail that can rend the earth or call down lightning, flight, fire breathing, underwater breathing, some degree of sorcery.
Attitude: Grave
Dialogue Style: Loud, clear annunciation, harsh consonants, halting gaps between words and sentences.
Backstory/Description: Like all dragons, Fengbao Jian was created by the Verdant Emperor’s sorcery to serve as a hunter of demons and a spy on his behalf. Created to be the perfect soldier, Jian is loyal to a fault and has unquestioningly followed the Verdant Emperor’s orders his whole life.
Yeah, another one in the same ‘verse as this (http://www.30characters.com/2010/11/06/6-the-verdant-emperor-omnipotent-master-of-a-thousand-small-green-leaves/). It was kind of fun re-designing the Chinese dragon.
#8 Jonathon Mullcreek
Name: Jonathon Mullcreek
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 17/Male/White
Main Goal: Destroy all ghosts in the world.
Occupation: None/Occasional Mugger
Motivation: Revenge
Inner Need: Power and Self Esteem
Flaw: Low Self Esteem, Anger Issues
Good/Bad Habits: Takes care to remember hiding places, blames others for his own problems.
Secret: Was raped by a ghost as a young child.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Streetsmart, very good at hand-to-hand combat, fast and very good at climbing and hiding.
Quirks: Wears all black, as well as a pair of spiked shoulder pads.
Attitude: Grumpy
Dialogue Style: Low, menacing, terse.
Backstory/Description: Jonathon Mullcreek grew up as the only child of a widow living in the haunted city of Dunberg, where the ghosts of the dead are treated as citizens alongside living humans. As he was walking home from the park one day, he was abducted by a ghost and raped in an alleyway. Traumatized, he fell in with the other street urchins to learn how to fight, and he bought a pair of magic gloves that would make his punches effective against ghosts. In between skipping school and stealing things he hunts and kills ghosts as revenge.
Yay, catch up time! Dang, I sure have gotten behind. Anyway, I had a dream about this guy, and I figured it was too good of an idea to just pass up.
#7 Jinshu Dabhail, High Metal Thane of Demons
Name: Jinshu Dabhail, High Metal Thane of Demons
Species: Deity
Age/Sex/Race: 734/Male/N/A
Main Goal: Overthrow the Verdant Emperor and take his rightful place on the throne.
Occupation: Ruler of demons and enemy Heaven
Motivation: Anger, Jealousy, Justice
Inner Need: His rightful place on the throne
Flaw: Takes his anger out on those who don’t deserve it.
Secret: Was actually warned of the Verdant Emperor’s treachery, but didn’t believe it.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Immortal, very skilled blacksmith and warrior, some minor sorcery.
Quirks: Always wears his hand-crafted armor and weapons.
Attitude: Gruff, proud
Dialogue Style: Harsh, accusatory, defensive.
Backstory/Description: On the night before Jinshu Dabhail was meant to be coronated as the new emperor of Xinocel, he was kidnapped from his palace by the Emperor’s secret police, beaten into submission, and taken before a bogus trial where he was accused of a score of crimes he never committed, treason key among them. The Verdant Emperor sentenced him to permanent banishment beneath the sea of the mortal realm where his brilliant armor would hold him down and corrode, and he cursed him with a hideous form of sharp fangs, dark blue skin, and flashing red eyes. Those who spoke out in Jinshu’s defense were similarly cursed and banished. Beneath the waves, in all his rage and misery, Jinshu Dabhail organized his supporters into an army, and is now training them to someday storm the gates of Heaven and overthrow the false emperor. His fury is boundless, however, and he often sends his agents to terrorize the Verdant Emperor’s servants, namely the human race.
Yeah, this is a follow up to this post (http://www.30characters.com/2010/11/06/6-the-verdant-emperor-omnipotent-master-of-a-thousand-small-green-leaves/), set in the same Celtic-Chinese setting. The picture itself was really an experiment with using different tools to create textures and looks. What do you guys think?
#6 The Verdant Emperor, Omnipotent Master of a Thousand Small Green Leaves
Name: The Verdant Emperor, Omnipotent Master of a Thousand Small Green Leaves
Species: Deity
Age/Sex/Race: 3428/Male/N/A
Main Goal: To maintain his status as ruler of Xinocel.
Occupation: Emperor of the universe of Xinocel.
Motivation: Power, Greed, Arrogance
Inner Need: Greatness, status, influence.
Flaw: Arrogant, unforgiving, extremely short-tempered.
Good/Bad Habits: Rules fairly, unless angered, in which case he is very cruel.
Secret: Was supposed to relinquish his post as Emperor over 200 years ago, and he banished his rightful successor, Jinshu Dabhail, to the bottom of the sea.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Immortal, an extremely knowledgable alchemist and sorcerer.
Quirks: Goes everywhere with at least two floozies and always smokes from a jade hookah.
Attitude: Jolly
Dialogue Style: Fast, extremely eloquent with the occasional slip of surprising casual terminology.
Backstory/Description: The universe of Xinocel is ruled by the thousands of gods in Heaven, who are in turn ruled by an emperor. This emperor is aligned with one of the five elements (wood, metal, fire, water, earth) and rules for 1000 years. The Verdant Emperor, aligned with wood, has ruled for 1238 years. When he came to power, he decided that he was the best person to rule the gods, and set up a network of spies and secret police to better control Heaven. When it came time for him to resign, he had his rightful successor, Jinshu Dabhail of Metal, arrested by his secret police and banished to the bottom of the sea. He then threw a lavish party to announce that he would be emperor forever, and since he was well feared, no one opposed him. He now rules Xinocel efficiently and relatively fairly, but any opposition is immediately silenced by his secret police and banished from Heaven.
And with this one I’m all caught up. I thought of this setting/character when I started reading Journey to the West, that ancient Chinese novel. This setting was conceived as a mix between Celtic and Chinese mythologies, and I thought about making a Mutants and Masterminds campaign out of it. That would be pretty bad ass…
#5 Kamau “Longhorns” Okeke
Name: Kamau “Longhorns” Okeke
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 29/Male/Black
Main Goal: Destroy all of the Tall Ones once and for all.
Occupation: Hunter/Gatherer/Superhero
Motivation: Survival
Inner Need: Glory
Flaw: Rash, slightly arrogant, careless
Good/Bad Habits: Willing to help those in need, but rushes into things without thinking too often.
Secret: That he is the superhero Longhorns and how he got his powers through grave robbery.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: A decent hunter/gatherer, knows how to make crude explosives and smoke bombs, super-human strength, speed, and jumping ability.
Quirks: Collects spears and always has one on his person.
Attitude: Jovial
Dialogue Style: Casual, not very eloquent, several jokes of varying levels of lameness.
Backstory/Description: The people of the Majani Grasslands live in fear of the Tall Ones, giant monsters of dizzying variety that all come from the West somewhere to terrorize them. Kamau Okeke was just a simple hunter/gatherer on the Majani Plains until, dissatisfied with his demanding way of life, decided to try supplementing his income with grave robbery. He would dig up the few bits of gold and copper jewelry people were buried with until he thought he’d try exhuming the grave of a long-dead shaman. In it he found a strange, horned head dress and tried it on. He found it gave him super strength, super speed, and the ability to make incredible leaps in the air. Armed with the magic head dress, his collection of spears, and the knowledge of crafting explosives he’d learned from a travelling merchant, he became the hero Longhorns, devoted to slaying the Tall Ones and protecting his people.
Yeah, how you like that? I missed posting yesterday, so this is the first of two. I’ve always liked the idea of superheroes in other cultures than American, so here’s a superhero in a pseudo-African setting fighting giant monsters. Yay!
#4 Zoain the Songstress
Name: Zoain the Songstress
Species: Werewolf
Age/Sex/Race: 17/Female/N/A
Main Goal: Find a new home and family.
Occupation: Songstress/storyteller
Motivation: Grief, anger
Inner Need: Family and companionship
Flaw: Too reactionary, too gregarious
Good/Bad Habits: Religiously maintains her posessions and her own appearance.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: An excellent singer and player of the athnilute, as well as a very skilled hunter. Very stealthy.
Quirks: Very protective of her prized athnilute. Will go to great lengths to ensure its safety.
Attitude: Optimistic
Dialogue Style: Very fast and loose grammar, plenty of double-negatives.
Backstory/Description: Zoain was the daughter of Ranoan, the alpha-male of a werewolf tribe. She served as the tribal story-teller and entertained her fellow wolves with her singing and playing of the athnilute (a made up two-stringed instrument). Her life was relatively simple until her father was challenged and slain by an outsider, Zonande. Zonande became the new alpha and took Ranoan’s mate as his own, as is the natural course of werewolf politics. Zoain, however, was overcome with grief at the death of her father and could not bring herself to accept the rule of the man who killed him. The very night that Zonande slew her father she ran away to find a new home.
…and then she met Jeffery and they teamed up to travel the world fighting monsters and shit and fell in love and had three kids somehow! Yes, number #4 lives in the same ‘verse as #3 (right here -> http://www.30characters.com/2010/11/03/3-jeffery-caldwell/), and I originally conceived them as teaming up as an unlikely duo. Just to clarify a few things: werewolves in this setting are fixed in the anthropoid form, this picture takes place in the Custwood, and the athnilute is a two-stringed instrument I made up. Also, I’m up to my neck in projects these days, so the next couple of characters might be late. I’ll do some catching up/getting ahead this weekend.
#3 Jeffery Caldwell
Name: Jeffery Caldwell
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 27/Male/White
Main Goal: Get a home somewhere safe and far away from Custwood.
Occupation: Tinker/Gunsmith/Binder of Demons
Motivation: Survival, making ends meet.
Inner Need: Safety, security, and acceptance.
Flaw: Cowardice, meekness, slightly impulsive.
Good/Bad Habits: Is very neat and orderly, is very patient and has good manners. Too submissive, somewhat withdrawn.
Secret: Desperately wants a wife and family of his own, but is too scared to talk to women.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Highly skilled in crafting mechanical devices and powering them with bound demons. College education. Good shot with a wheel gun.
Quirks: Makes sure his wheel-gun and spectacles are either on him or within arms reach at all times.
Attitude: Shy, slightly gloomy
Dialogue Style: Stutters occasionally, speaks quickly and uses several impressive vocabulary words.
Backstory/Description: Jeffery Caldwell was too young to remember when his father Graham brought him to live in the town of Brilim deep in the heart of Custwood, the haunted province. Jeffery grew up working in his father’s inn and tavern being pushed around by drunken patrons and steeped in all the tales of vicious monsters that haunted the forest at night, stories that were horribly true. When Jeffery reached adulthood, his father sent him to the city to study engineering and demon-binding at a university, since it was the most lucrative profession and there were plenty of demons in the woods. Jeffery learned well, and when he came back he made a workshop of his room and crafts various weapons and tools to sell to support the inn. The use of bound demons, however, requires that he replenish his supply from time to time, which means venturing out into the woods at night, which he logically dreads. He crafted his own demon-powered wheel gun, a weapon that fires large metal projectiles, as a means of defending himself when he ventures into the woods twice a month.
Well, this picture was interesting… Sort of an experiment with lighting and very poorly lit environments. I think it turned out pretty well, considering I have never attempted anything of the sort. Anyway, what really interests me is the world this guy lives in. I imagine it as sort of a mish-mash of the Wild West, your standard fantasy setting, a little modern, and a little colonial times. Very interesting combination. I’ll do at least one character in this setting.
#2 Longbranch
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Name: Longbranch
Species: Human
Age/Sex/Race: 22/Male/Arbon
Main Goal: Find out why the Undomans are attacking his people and stop them.
Occupation: Hunter/Savior of the Arbon Race
Motivation: The loss of his village, family, way of life, and also he was ordered to.
Inner Need: Appreciation and respect.
Flaw: Not very bright, rushes into things. Poor deductive reasoning.
Good/Bad Habits: Follows orders and respects his elders, but frequently forgets things.
Secret: Used to steal to buy gifts for his various girlfriends.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: Has decent survival knowledge. Owns the Seeds of Willowmane, giving him various plant-related powers.
Quirks: Proudly wears a large brass belt-buckle he won in a wrestling match with a buddy and always brags about it.
Attitude: Grave
Dialogue Style: Uses several long pauses and discourse particles (umm, like, y’know). Very poor vocabulary.
Backstory/Description: Longbranch was born in the forest village of Willowat, one of the many villages of the tribal Arbon people. He was never very bright growing up, frequently forgot things and had a hard time making himself useful. One day, however, pale-skinned men, the Undomans, rose from their kingdom beneath the Forbidden Lake to march north and wage war on the Arbons. Longbranch’s village was struck by a shockingly well-equipped force, and amidst the chaos Longbranch was yanked into a nearby hut by the village chieftain. In desperation, the chieftain entrusted Longbranch with the Seeds of Willowmane, a pair of magical seeds created by the long-dead shaman Willowmane, which grow into a thick tangle of animate vines over the users hands, allowing them to be used to great effect in combat. The chieftain ordered Longbranch to find out why the Arbons were attacking and stop them, and without so much as a goodbye shoved him out the door into the dark forest. Longbranch instinctively fled the carnage of his village and began heading south, towards the Forbidden Lake.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I thought I would actually do a background with this one. Waaaay too much work. I think this shall be the standard amount of effort I will put into my drawings from here on out.
#1 King Golem
Name: King Golem
Species: Golem
Age/Sex/Race: 578/Male/N/A
Main Goal: To perfect the formulae of golem creation.
Occupation: Wizard/Master Craftsman
Motivation: Obsession with perfection.
Inner Need: Perfection in all things.
Flaw: Pedantic and worries too much. Overly critical of self and others.
Good/Bad Habits: Never cuts corners or takes the easy way, but is also critical of others to the point of rudeness.
Secret: The gem on his chest holds his soul, and if it is broken, he’ll die. This includes all details of his former life, and the fact that he had one.
Skills, Knowledge, Props: A wizard of legendary power and knowledge. Extremely skilled in the craft of golems.
Quirks: Polishes his metallic body excruciatingly and reacts with anger to anyone marring or dirtying it.
Attitude: Cold, gruff.
Dialogue Style: Terse, strictly logical, gramatically flawless.
Backstory/Description: King Golem was once a dwarven wizard who would occasionally craft golems for use in his clan’s mines. Although the golems he crafted were very productive, he could only see the flaws in them, and strove to improve each consecutive one. One day, however, tragedy struck when one of his golems went berserk due to a tiny flaw in its creation. It killed four miners before it could be destroyed, after which King Golem was cast out of his clan. So great was his shame that he swore he would never again speak his dwarven name and he would never make another mistake as long as he lived. He carved out a secluded laboratory deep in the earth and labored on perfecting his golems until he grew old. Still unsatisfied with his golems and running out of time, he boldly modified his golem animation formulae to bind his soul into one. He has since lived for centuries in this form and has expanded his laboratory into a vast system of subterranean mines staffed by his scores of golems.
Alright, here’s number one. This has been my internet handle for years, but I’ve never drawn him or presented him as a character, though I have thought of it.
30 Characters Challenger: Perry Watson
Avete, artifices colega! My name is Perry Hamner Watson. I am a 19 year old white male and resident of South Georgia. I am presently a college student enrolled in Valdosta State University on the pre-engineering program, training to be an electrical engineer. Also, brownie points to whoever can translate my salutation and tell me its language.
Having settled on a technical career, art is purely a hobby for me. I consider myself an intellectual and strive for expansion of the mind through artistic expression. I am a writer, having written half a dozen short stories and am currently working on a novel, and I have some degree of profficiency with traditional drawing media, as evident by my deviantART page (http://stoneman123.deviantart.com/).
The one quality that I always pursue in my artwork is the fabrication of new or at least unanticipated ideas. When ideas are used and re-used over and over again, they start to grow stale and boring, to me at least. The ur-example, I would say, would be the tropes of the Tolkienesque fantasy, having been rehashed countlessly over the years. I want ideas that are original, or at least haven’t been done to death.
As for inspiration, I’ve been consuming video games and cartoons all my life, and will continue to do so. I’m also a fan of Dungeons and Dragons and other such role-playing games and an avid reader of novels. My current favorite cartoon is Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, due mostly to the vibrant originality of its setting, not to mention the humor, the characters, and a score of other things that make it awesome. My favorite books are the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman and A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, just to name a couple. My favorite video games are No More Heroes and the Monster Hunter games, again, to barely scratch the surface. All of them have inspired me in one way or another. Indeed, so has everything I’ve ever experienced.
My hope is that with this challenge I will be able to grow as an artist, to generate an array of interesting and unique characters for later use, and, perhaps, to inspire other artists.
#30Characters Chatter…