My Musings on Character Development

unwanderinggirl

I've always wanted to spend time and really develop my character's personalities and goals. I've always felt it's given me a sense of direction and purpose in writing, and it tends to help me come up with better plots and stories with other people. I can't say I have any yet for any of my characters here in Thul'Ka (unfortunately), other than feeling them out and seeing what's going to unfold, but I'd like to get on top of that situation for all of them and really set a path for them to travel on, whatever that may look like. It's a good exploration period here when everything is shiny and new, and so I look forward to setting a trajectory for each of my PCs over time. It was easy to jot down a few quick goals in my character sheets, but are those really the ultimate goals my characters have for themselves? I don't know.

For the moment, it's easiest for me to sit down and do this with Tristaan, who is an old PC and feels familiar. I know him well, but I admit I don't know what to do with him in Mugroba other than keep him out of Anaxas. There is more under the surface to that statement that I want to feel out, and in order to do that I feel the need to really dig deeper than what I know so well already. Just because I feel like he's in my head, doesn't mean I find it easy to set a direction for the passive at all ... especially as a refugee. With a wife. With kids. There's some things to do, surely, but I need to nail them down before they escape me.

unwanderinggirl

Tristaanian Greymoor
M-B personality type: INFJ (http://typelogic.com/infj.html) ... oh yeah, totally.

Constant Traits

» Dedicated - Wherever Tristaan hangs his proverbial hat, he is all in. There is no middle ground for the passive: whatever task is at hand must be done to the fullest extent of what is needed, regardless of whether or not it will require him to do something harmful to himself in the process. He is loyal, loving, and often intense because of his willingness to devote himself to a person or a cause. Even while practically a slave in a factory as a boy, he was dedicated to his lot in life until life pointed him elsewhere. Now that he has a family to take care of, he is dedicated to taking care of them, and that luckily also invites a sense of self-preservation that he is not usually used to maintaining. It's a healthy change, and one that finally sheds a more positive light on his willingness to be devoted to someone or something.

» Broken - This dedication is tarnished, however, by a lifetime of being told he is broken. Incapable. Unwanted. Dangerous. This brokenness often overshadows any of Tristaan’s redeemable qualities because it is, in fact, the basis on which he defines his ability to be dedicated in the first place. How can he be loyal if he is not worthy to be trusted? How can he love if he is not lovable (as proven by his parents, for example)? How can he really feel accomplished in anything if he cannot truly have a status in society?


Situational Traits

» Well-Intentioned - Tristaan desperately wants to do good. He always has, even as a child dreaming of becoming a Seventen with his sister. He wants to uphold what is right and to do the right things, but defining right when told one is fundamentally wrong tends to turn even his best intentions against himself, despite his deepest, internal leanings toward goodness.

» Distrustful - Because he believes he is destined to a life of being wrong, he finds it impossible to trust anything as really, really right. This also applies to people, though there are a few (Sarinah being the most obvious) who have managed to climb over this self-defensive wall of distrust and see the greenery on the other side that Tristaan feels forced to keep to himself.


Ultimate Goal:
Personal Restoration


Ultimate Conflicts:
What does restoration mean, for Tristaan? for passives as a genetic sub-group of galdori society? Is this recognition that passives are valid members of society, capable of equally significant contributions? Is this legal and social status on-par with galdori status? Is this magical ability? Is this personal success at an equal level to galdori standards of success (money? employment?) Hmm. What restoration means as a passive is currently impossible to define. The status of his home country, Anaxas, which sees passives as defective and broken, is also in a state of civil war and thus his very question is unanswerable. The conflict itself is not concerned with passives as a people group.


Penultimate Goal:
Define what sort of restoration will ultimately be satisfactory, thereby defining how to restore [Anaxi?] passives (as a whole) into [Anaxi?] society.


Penultimate Conflict:
Considering neither those struggling to hold onto power and those attempting to take it into their own hands (the Resistance) back in his home country of Anaxas are concerned with passives as a whole, Tristaan’s brokenness cannot be restored and he remains distrustful of both sides of the civil war, unable to bring himself to participate or to have hope in any possibility of restoration for himself or for passives in general, regardless of which side “wins.” Also, living as a refugee in another country completely eliminates the foundation for his current set of goals, especially considering Mugrobi society treats and views passives (imbali) in a fundamentally different way. This is, perhaps, more than just an opportunity for simple conflict so much as a very real crisis of belief.

unwanderinggirl

Iyoas

M-B Personality Type: INTJ (http://typelogic.com/intj.html)

Constant Traits:

» Creative - Iyoas is, above all, a creator. He is most satisfied, focused, and confident when making something, and feels accomplished when he can exercise his craftsmanship successfully. He’d rather be making than anything else, and the process is sometimes more important to him than the end result. What he makes is art to him, even if it’s often paper ephemera such as political posters for Poster Day or a hand-bound book that most see is more utilitarian than beautiful. For Iyoas, his work must be as beautiful as it is functional, and this is often a source of inner conflict. Not all of what he does can be as lovely as he’d like it to be, and his chosen craft is not something often admired outside of the circle of other printmakers and bookbinders who would be his peers. His creativity also spills into solving problems: he’s a talker, a lover, a fixer, not a fighter. He’d rather come up with a working solution than be forced into violence, though he’s not afraid to step up to such measures if the situation requires such.

» Stubborn - Iyoas likes to be right. He’d rather always be right, and when he is actually wrong (which is often enough that it should be humbling), he struggles to admit he’s wrong, to apologize, and to make things right. His stubbornness, tempered with a deep-rooted creative sense of perfectionism, can make Iyoas quite obstinate. While he somehow manages to keep himself from angry or violent outbursts most of the time, he’s not immune to passionate fits of stubborn frustration. Luckily, most of his equipment is too heavy and too valuable to throw (printing presses, lithography stones, metal type), but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had to take himself for a walk or broken a few smaller, replaceable items in his time. Iyoas prefers things his way as often as he can get it, almost in defiance of social expectations as an oshoor among traditionalist imbali. When pushed against the grain, his first response is not to bend but to push back. He can be shaped—persuaded—but immediate compliance to something he doesn’t agree with is not his knee-jerk reaction … ever. This has left him jaded, especially to legal, social, and magical norms.

Situational Traits

» Passionate - Iyoas works in one direction: his. When he has an idea, a vision, or a plan, he pursues it until it's end, whether that end is good or bad. He will drag others with him, whether that’s an apprentice or any friend/companion thrown into the situation with him. When motivated to do something, he does it with a fiery intensity that is difficult to put a halt to, short of the tall walls of the Turtle. When he enjoys something, he enjoys it fully. When he loves something, he loves it whole-heartedly. When he hates something, he hates it completely. This passion grants Iyoas a kind of selective focus when it comes to work or play, a narrow beam of concentration on things when it suits his interests. The opposite, however, is also true. If he doesn't feel the desire to do something, he simply cannot bring himself to do it.

» Insecure - Whether this seed was always in his heart or not, Iyoas is not certain. Being an oshoor among imbali means he is a black sheep, not entirely unwanted but not entirely accepted, either. His father wanted him, loved him, and went to great lengths to keep him both safe and taken care of, but at the same time, both his father and his sister were terrified of his magical abilities and unsure of how to handle them, considering Iyoas’ legal status as an imbala. He doesn't suffer from feeling incapable so much as never feeling like enough, never feeling comfortable in his own skin, and never feeling acceptable to any social class he could possibly fit into (imbali or arati). The roots to this deep insecurity were firmly planted over the years of conflict between himself and his father, often because of his magical abilities. This insecurity usually manifests itself in a very aggressive form of competitiveness, but can also flare up into something more like inconsolable moodiness, especially when he feels frustrated by a creative project or large task.

Ultimate Goal:

Ultimate Conflict:

Penultimate Goal:

Penultimate Conflicts:

((Obviously a work in progress.))

unwanderinggirl

Suhayl

M-B Personality Type: ENFP (http://typelogic.com/enfj.html); probably with some P/J overlap.

Constant Traits
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Situational Traits
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Ultimate Goal: 

((Nowhere yet. Hmm.))