Pictures/Idea origins for Characters

So one of the things I was really excited about with the blog was that I could share pictures. I had been thinking of posting a story under the illustrated section on Literotica for awhile, but wasn't all that serious about it since most people wouldn't see it and it would get lost and what not. But anyways. A lot of my characters, specifically the sci/fi and fantasy ones, are based off other characters. At least in appearance. I thought it would kind of be cool to give you guys an Idea of how some of the more complex characters look, at least a rough outline since I do change some stuff.

One of the firsts that came to mind was:

Zan (The Divide)

As any of my faithful readers would know, The Divide was one of my most successful stories. People loved the idea of different kinds of dragons and medieval times and all that fun stuff. One of the things I think about when writing is 'If someone had NEVER heard of ____ before, and I had to describe it to them, how would I do that?' So if someone had never heard of a dragon before, how would you describe it. Just as a refresher, This is a group of descriptions of Zan and the red dragons in general from the story:

'To the north the fire dragons lived. They were smaller then the earth dragons but larger than the others. They breathed fire, obviously, and preferred to burn their prey. They were the most dangerous of all of the dragons since they held traits from each of the other broods. They were large and strong like the Earth dragons, but spectacular fliers like the wind dragons, and they were poisonous like the water dragons. They lived in the volcanoes and lava pits to the north. They were usually different shades of red and orange.......................Its wings resembled a bats and served as its arms an as its wings. The clawed finger type appendage tried to grip the cliff side but the loose earth just crumbled beneath it. It tried several more times but eventually gave up and used its large back legs to kick off the side of the cliff.................The dragon was a large red one. It had two horns that curved towards its back, an in between them were pointed spines that went all the way from its head to halfway down its tail, where they stopped, and a club like chunk of bone ended the tail.'

So The basic Idea of Zan came from the Red Proto-drakes from World of Warcraft:

After I wrote the story, I found this pic which is also kind of similar:

The second pic is more like how I imagined Zan's wings. But the first has his legs the way I wanted. The second also has the spines going down the back, altho they don't go as far as I wanted. What both of them are missing is the clubbed tail, and also (Even though the second pic has horns) The horns aren't the way I imagined, they look kind of goat like there. I was thinking more like:

Yaaay cute animals!

I just wanted the bunny in there.... Anyways. The rest of the types of dragons looked like this (Give or take):

White dragons (From the mountains):

Earth Dragons (Swamps) and yeah, life has some scary shit....:

Water dragons (duh, water):

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I was going to have a section with Levi, but...i mean...come on. Blue tail, some beads in the hair. Yeah you don't need my help for that one.

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Nikolai (Free at Last) and many more

One thing that I always think about to help me get the idea of a character, is a song. A lot of times my characters (and especially story lines) are influenced by song. A lot of songs (Lets use 'Free at Last' from Repo the genetic opera as an example) are ways to show how a character changes, especially in a musical. Even if you might not realize it, that's what you're looking for in a story. You want the main character to go from point A (which is usually shitty) to point B (which is usually awesome and filled with lube and condoms) 

It just so happens I use the song free at last to inspire a lot of my characters. If you haven't seen the movie (and plan on watching it) I advise that you not read this section.

Throughout the whole movie, Shiloh is all like 'meh this all sucks I hate everybody it's all their fault I'm sick meh meh meh' But the song Free at Last is her way of realizing 'Oh, shit. They have nothing to do with how my life turns out and it's all up to me, I do what I want bitches!' Of course all it takes is her father being shot and her godmother being impaled on a fence *shrugs* 

So as I'm sure you've realized by now, the story Free at Last was one of my first inspired by this song. Nikolai starts out pessimistic and angry, and in the end he really realizes that all of the horrible things don't have to ruin his life if he doesn't want them to. This realization kind of sets him free and sets up his new life with Clark and Anna. The specific part of the song that effects the stories is:

"You... I've mistaken for destiny, but the truth is my legacy is not up to my genes. True, though the imprint is deep in me, it will always be up to me. Up to me. Free at last!"

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Areli (Cinderella)

 the Wendigo!

This time I had almost the exact picture in mind. At the end of the chapter, after he eats the two guards. Titus would stand at about the wrist of his right hand...The smaller right hand that is.

Wendigo's are a creature from Native American folklore. They were basically thought up to keep people from eating other people. Which is good, I guess. They're forever driven mad by their hunger, which never ends because as soon as they consume something they grow to the size of their meal. There's different ideas about the Wendigo saying the demon possesses the person or it just lives side by side with them for awhile. *shrugs* Areli would be a lot less attractive if he looked like that all the time.

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Shep (Angel Hunter)

So the idea of Shep was a weird one. Think of Neo from the Matrix, meets a medieval warrior. So one of the most notable things about his character are his dual swords. I'll probably add some back story to them in the later chapters because they ARE real mythological swords (if that makes sense haha). They both come from a legend or story. 

The first (and easiest to remember) is Solias. Solias is the sword of light, Since Shep walks between to worlds, so to speak, he's literally divided in half. Part of him following light, and the other dark. So Solias is the half of his weapons that is more angelic and sacred. Claíomh Solais Is the sword of light, the sword light. The legend is that, to get the sword, the hero must perform three tasks (with the aid of a female, animal companion, or supernatural being) They usually have to go kick the ass of some other supernatural being (Giant, ogre, Minotaur, etc) to pass the challenge, using the sword as their weapon. More often than not (like with most legendary monsters) The creature only has one point of weakness the hero must find and stab a lot (Achilles heel, a cyclops' eye, etc etc) But the main thing in all of the legends of Solias is that a woman plays a key part in it (usually a damsel in distress or his bride-to-be) But we're going to go ahead and leave the boobs out of this one ;)

The second (and hardest name to remember how to spell EVER) is Dyrnwyn, The sword from hell. Instead  of using a black sword, or one that screams 'I'm going to steal your soul' we decided to go with fire. Fire is always good. When people think of hell, they think fire and brimstone etc, right? Well that's how we found this sword. (It's actually from a series of books I've never read lol) It's supposed to be one of those cool fancy swords that chooses it's wielder, not the other way around. If you're not worthy, you can't touch it or you get a nasty burn. So when Lex attempted to pick up the sword, it didn't like that too much.

The weapons were the most fun part to design about Shep. His look matches his weapons (or is it the other way around?) Light on the right and Dark on the left. His hair is split, as is his eye color (which is yet to be revealed if they were always like that or if he did something to make them different.) But generally, his clothing is bleak and dark. He wears large steal toed black boots:

And a coat to hide his swords as best as he can from the prying eyes of the public not exactly like Neo's from the matrix, but I couldn't find a picture that looked like what I had in mind, so that's left up to your imagination.

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Lex (Angel Hunter)

Lex is Shep's new (and sort of unwanted) Demon companion. Kind of into the BDSM scene, Lex provides the story with witty and mildly stupid antics. He carries a whip with him (For more than a weapon, if you know what I mean.) After he's saved by Shep, he decides to keep the chains that still hang from his wrists, and wrap the others around his chest. When I created him, I was thinking about the Succubi from WoW:

Thought now, all they have in common is the whip, the horns, and the wings. Instead of hooves, Lex has his claws on his feet and his hands. His tail is similar in length, but with the standard triangle tip for a little devil, which is basically what he is:

The general idea for the whole story (and it's characters) stemmed from religious stereotypes. In that I mean everyone who lives a free and fun life is going to hell. (I apologize in advance if my hatred for religion comes out in this, and offends anyone.) Everyone see's Angels/God as being the 'good guys' and the devil and demons are automatically trying to ruin your life (and afterlife) When really there's no reason to believe that. When you really think about religious thoughts about God vs Satan it always comes down to "You may not live a full and happy life now, but if you pray hard enough and worship this abusive bastard, then you get to go to heaven and be happy." or "You'll have a fun life now, but you'll end up being tortured for all eternity in hell, totally ruining your afterlife." 

Now, I don't know about you guys, but neither of those options sound like fun to me. But, if you think about it in more of an abstract way (Feel free to skip any of this, you guys lol.) God is like an abusive boyfriend. "No really, I love you. Just let me make you miserable for a little bit, and then I promise we'll be okay." and to excuse that kind of behavior, people say the way overused phrase 'God works in mysterious ways.' So does that mean that people should just start saying that to the cops once they get their ass beat by their significant other? I guess I'm just not a fan of blind faith or abusive relationships.

And who says they're going to keep their end of the deal, anyways? Doesn't it sound a little weird, some guy in the sky is mean enough to kill thousands of people, fuck with your life, etc. Then he's just magically going to change sides and give you your own Slurpee machine and hot dog rotissary? (Totally what I want if heaven existed.) But it kind of makes sense that the guy who's trying to tempt you into fun and shit is going to stay that way, and then once you go take a visit to him when you croak, it's still going to be fun and there will be a movie theater pop corn machine for everyone too, right next to the rotissary.

Religious rant over. You're dismissed. ;)

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