CHARACTER STUDY & INSPIRATION.

[Duarchist 324]

In thinking about my own character concepts and how they've adapted over the years, I got curious as to how others on the server decide what drives their creative process, so I want to know: what characters, books, movies, or other media were the driving inspirations behind your character, and what inspirations were added over time as their stories developed?

 

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I've dropped mine in a spoiler since they're pretty long!

 

Spoiler

Kindrel Drakon

• Grouper's Ruins album. This was one of her largest influences and I listened to it almost any time I was writing her; the haunting, hazy melodies hit the exact mood I hoped to emulate with the character.
• T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' poetry, specifically in relation to her childhood and early life and how that influenced her interactions with her first love and the people of Elvenesse.
• Sara Eliza Jonhson's 'Bone Map: Poems', specifically in relation to her life in the Fennic Remnants after the reunification of the mali'fenn, as well as her role as an advisor and High Vigilant.
• Timothy Morton's 'What Is Dark Ecology?' essay, in which he aims to erase the dichotomy between human vs nature, as well as subject vs object.
• The play Medea by Seneca, which spins a tale of love and revenge between the sorceress Medea and her husband Jason.
• Simen Yohan's photography, particular 'Untitled #159, 2010' at the Yossi Milo Gallery in NYC. cw dead animal.
• Skaði from Norse Mythos, especially after becoming a Fjarriagua.

 

Dahlya Kruger

• Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's 'Monster Culture (Seven Theses)', which explores classical monster literature and how it both shapes and is shaped by the cultures they exist within. 
• Any familial relationship in which the father does not treat his daughter as a person but rather as a tool for his own means and ends, especially GRRM's Alicent and Otto Hightower and Greek mythos' Agamemnon and Iphigeneia.
• Bonnie Burstow's 'Radical Feminist Therapy: Working in the Context of Violence', particularly in Dahlya's relationships with other women and especially her mother.
• William Shakespeare's Hamlet, especially the character of Ophelia and her narrative thread which unwinds due to the relationships she holds with the men in her life.
• The Buttress' Brutus single, in relation to her father's obsession with his other vampyric and blood magi students, especially her younger brother; 'She is forced into a position of lesser greatness and ability, despite her carnal hunger for power, recognition, glory. This hunger begins to consume her, and the more she is denied her right to respect and grandeur, the more audacious and homicidal she becomes.'
• Messa da Requim by Guiseppe Verdi, particularly Requim 1 — and really any other classical piece with the 13th century Gregorian Dies Irae motif.
• Baroque oil paintings, especially Jan Davidsz. de Heem's 'Festoon of Fruit and Flowers' and Josefa de Óbidos' 'Cordeiro Pascal'.
• This tumblr post, in relation to her father, his abuse, and eventually her murder.

 

Aelyra Tundrak

• Tolkien's Éowyn of Rohan, specifically during the War of the Ring, but prior to her marriage to Faramir.
• A combination of personality traits taken from The Witcher's Geralt, Lambert, Vesemir, and related characters from the School of the Wolf.
• Assassin Creed's Hytham of the Hidden Ones, particularly in relation to her work ethic and morality.
• Æthelflæd, Lady of Mercia, ruler of Mercia of the English Midlands in the 10th century who helped to unite the country during the Anglo-Saxon campaign against the Danes.
• Tolkien's relationship between Galadriel and Sauron, as it relates to an ongoing arc surrounding The Black Pontiff.
• Horse girls everywhere <3

 

Ithwen Mallental

• tba

 

[alexmagus 621]

20 minutes ago, Duarchist said:

Dahlya Kruger

i think you forgot one inspiration

Spoiler

 

[Duarchist 324]

2 minutes ago, alexmagus said:

i think you forgot one inspiration

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